Have we met? New insights into the role of head and body cues in the visual recognition of conspecifics in gray parrots (Psittacus erithacus).

Abstract

Prikrylová et al. (see record 2023-79461-001) contribute a paper to this issue in which they tested two-dimensional individual recognition of familiar subjects in African gray parrots. They not only tested familiar individual recognition per se but also the effect of manipulating individual and combined features in the head and the body of their stimuli. Notably, instead of using discrimination tasks, which have previously been applied in bird studies (e.g., Hauser & Huber-Eicher, 2004; Nakamura et al., 2003; Watanabe & Ito, 1990), they went through great effort applying a matching-to-sample approach. This is particularly important as it allows for testing familiar conspecific recognition on a more conceptual level than a discrimination task. Moreover, it facilitates the comparison with previous work done on primates (e.g., Micheletta et al., 2015; Parr et al., 2000, 2006; Talbot et al., 2016). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).