Editing Animal cognition (section)

==== Visual search and attentional priming ====
As noted above, the function of attention is to select information that is of special use to the animal.  Visual search typically calls for this sort of selection, and search tasks have been used extensively in both humans and animals to determine the characteristics of attentional selection and the factors that control it.

Experimental research on visual search in animals was initially prompted by field observations published by Luc Tinbergen (1960).<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Tinbergen L | year = 1960 | title = The natural control of insects in pine woods: I. Factors influencing the intensity of predation by songbirds | journal = Archives Néerlandaises de Zoologie | volume = 13 | pages = 265–343 | doi = 10.1163/036551660X00053}}</ref> Tinbergen observed that birds are selective when foraging for insects. For example, he found that birds tended to catch the same type of insect repeatedly even though several types were available. Tinbergen suggested that this prey selection was caused by an attentional bias that improved detection of one type of insect while suppressing detection of others.  This "attentional priming" is commonly said to result from a pretrial activation of a mental representation of the attended object, which Tinbergen called a "searching image".

Tinbergen's field observations on priming have been supported by a number of experiments. For example, Pietrewicz and Kamil (1977, 1979)<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pietrewicz AT, Kamil AC | title = Visual Detection of Cryptic Prey by Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) | journal = Science | volume = 195 | issue = 4278 | pages = 580–2 | date = February 1977 | pmid = 17732294 | doi = 10.1126/science.195.4278.580 | url = http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=biosciaviancog | bibcode = 1977Sci...195..580P | s2cid = 10858793| url-access = subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pietrewicz AT, Kamil AC | title = Search Image Formation in the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) | journal = Science | volume = 204 | issue = 4399 | pages = 1332–3 | date = June 1979 | pmid = 17813172 | doi = 10.1126/science.204.4399.1332 | url = http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=bioscibehavior | bibcode = 1979Sci...204.1332P | s2cid = 14809014| url-access = subscription }}</ref> presented blue jays with pictures of tree trunks upon which rested either a moth of species A, a moth of species B, or no moth at all.  The birds were rewarded for pecks at a picture showing a moth. Crucially, the probability with which a particular species of moth was detected was higher after repeated trials with that species  (e.g. A, A, A,...) than it was after a mixture of trials (e.g. A, B, B, A, B, A, A...).  These results suggest again that sequential encounters with an object can establish an attentional predisposition to see the object.

Another way to produce attentional priming in search is to provide an advance signal that is associated with the target.  For example, if a person hears a song sparrow he or she may be predisposed to detect a song sparrow in a shrub, or among other birds.  A number of experiments have reproduced this effect in animal subjects.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Blough PM | year = 1989 | title = Attentional priming and visual search in pigeons |journal=[[Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition]] | volume = 17 | issue = 4| pages = 292–298 | doi = 10.1037/0097-7403.17.3.292 | pmid = 2794871}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Kamil AC, Bond AB | date = 2006 | chapter = Selective attention, priming, and foraging behavior. | veditors = Wasserman EA, Zentall TR | title = Comparative Cognition: Experimental Exploration of Animal Intelligence | location = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press}}</ref>

Still other experiments have explored nature of stimulus factors that affect the speed and accuracy of visual search.  For example, the time taken to find a single target increases as the number of items in the visual field increases.  This rise in reaction time is steep if the distracters are similar to the target, less steep if they are dissimilar, and may not occur if the distracters are very different from the target in form or color.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Blough DS, Blough PM | date = 1990 | chapter = Reaction-time assessments of visual processes in pigeons. | veditors = Berkley M, Stebbins W | title = Comparative perception | pages = 245–276 | location = New York | publisher = Wiley}}</ref>