Shape from shading in pigeons

Light is the origin of vision. The pattern of shading reflected from object surfaces is one of several optical features that provide fundamental information about shape and surface orientation. To understand how surface and object shading is processed by birds, six pigeons were tested with differentially illuminated convex and concave curved surfaces in five experiments using a go/no-go procedure. We found that pigeons rapidly learned this type of visual discrimination independent of lighting direction, surface coloration and camera perspective. Subsequent experiments varying the pattern of the lighting on these surfaces through changes in camera perspective, surface height, contrast, material specularity, surface shape, light motion, and perspective movement were consistent with the hypothesis that the pigeons were perceiving these illuminated surfaces as three-dimensional surfaces containing curved shapes. The results suggest that the use of relative shading for objects in a visual scene creates highly salient features for shape processing in birds.

► Pigeons rapidly learned and discriminated surface shapes based on shading cues.
► Broad transfer across changes in illumination and shape suggested they perceived these surfaces in depth.
► Continuous dynamic illumination changes were transparent to the birds.
► The differential shading of objects and scenes is highly salient in avian visual processing.