Visual perception of rotated 2D color representations of familiar 3D objects in goldfish (Carassius auratus)

Abstract

The ability to visually recognize objects despite differences in orientation would be advantageous for fish because they often view objects from many aspect angles. In a series of studies, we trained fish to discriminate between two objects at 0 degrees, then tested them with the same objects at novel aspect angles. Our previous research showed that goldfish performed very well across all angles when inspecting 3D full-color stimuli (M = 93%), but were unable to discriminate between objects at all aspect angles with black and white simple or complex 2D stimuli (M = 66%). In the current study, we presented six goldfish with 2D color photos of familiar 3D stimuli (plastic turtles and frogs) rotated in the picture and depth planes. They were tested with the same aspect angles presented in the prior study with 3D stimuli (0, 90, 180, 270 degrees). The current results show that performance was above chance at all aspect angles (M = 83%), with the lowest accuracy for depth plane rotations about the x-axis. The performance of fish in these object constancy tasks appears to be influenced by the dimensions of the stimuli, the presence of color cues, and prior exposure to the objects.

Kenneth Tyler Wilcox

Statistical Consultant

My research interests include integrative data analysis, meta-analysis, topic modeling, Bayesian statistics, multilevel modeling, statistical programming, and psychology.