Characteristics of pigeons’ spatial working memory in an open-field task

Although pigeons seem to require special training before they will display accurate spatial working memory in radial-arm mazes, they readily show accurate working memory for recently visited feeder locations in an open-field analog of the radial maze. In this task, pigeons forage among sites located on the floor of an open room, with no constraints on the path they take between sites. Experiment 1 suggested that pigeons’ working memory for recently visited sites is facilitated if they are permitted to develop a stable reference memory “map” of the location of the sites with respect to landmarks in the room: Pigeons for which the landmarks remained constant from day to day displayed more accurate working memory than did pigeons for which the landmarks were rearranged between daily trials. The second experiment investigated the durability of pigeons’ working memory, using a forced-choice procedure. Accuracy remained high for retention intervals of up to 32 min, but dropped significantly with a 2-h delay.