Our research explores the cognitive mechanisms of animal models to shed light on human and non-human cognition. This endeavor ultimately requires considerations of comparative physiology, comparative neuroscience, and computational models.
At Villanova University, this research uses five major methodologies to examine the questions outlined below.
- Computer-captured cognitively controlled behavior: Animals (human or otherwise) engage in simple or complex tasks on a computer. Pigeons peck at a screen or humans press buttons on a touch screen, and we use clever experimental manipulations to expose the information processing in their respective neural systems.
- Human eyetracking: While humans are cognitively engaged in some visual tasks, we record their eye movements. From gaze patterns, we infer what conscious and non-conscious processes are unfolding through the decision process.
- Human neuroimaging: Using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), we examine if and how specific cortical regions contribute to simple and complex perceptual and motor tasks.
- Videography: We record videos of animals in various spaces, from pigeons sleeping, socializing, or chilling on a log to humans engaged in simple pre-social activities. We examine these videos to learn about these animals and their social expressions.
- Computational Modeling: The first four methodologies expose patterns of behavior. To fully understand the cognitive processing involved, we develop quantitative predictions to determine if our theories need to be revised.
These diverse projects are supported by collaborations with other faculty and labs: Dr. Suzanne Gray, Dr. Irene Kan, Dr. Anna Drummey.
The research explores similarities and differences in four areas: shape perception, motion processing, visual social cognition, and general cognition. The unique, almost paradoxical, combination of visual power, small size, and contrasting neural organization as exemplified by birds offers a special scientific opportunity for better understanding vision and cognition, how they function, and their implementation across different classes of animals.
Form
Vision informs how we and birds engage the world, and one critical visual process is shape perception. Basic questions like “Is that a predator?” or “Can I fit through that hole?” require visual form processing. Two simple aspects we studied – how shading from light sources is processed and visual grouping – suggest that birds’ visual abilities sometimes differ and sometimes compare with humans’. Earlier research on visual illusions further highlights the difficulty of studying these processes, while current research on medical image reading by humans and pigeons demonstrates the potential benefits to the venture. Understanding when and how birds’ highly efficient visual processing compares and contrast to humans’ vision promises to reveal theories or applications within the fields of machine learning, medical training, visual prosthetics, and highlight critical evolutionary conditions for vision optimization.
Motion
Motion adds a further temporal component that can be solved by either mnemonic or sensational processes (or both). I investigate how these dual processes interact using experiments that directly examine motion feature recognition and motion feature comparisons. In the style of basic science, we are investigating if pigeons see the same motion illusions humans do. If these evolutionarily flighted animals process motion fundamentally differently than we do, then understanding their motion processing mechanisms may reveal critical insights into how we program and operate our aerial technologies. This will be a natural real-world application for my basic research.
Visuo-Social Cognition
Form and motion compose the naturally important category of actions and behaviors. Computer generated stimuli have been helpful for studying how pigeons and humans discriminate human behavior. These studies suggest that the form and motion components of the digital figure are fundamental to action recognition. Continuing in the comparative lens, newer projects are examining the visual processing of social information in live pigeons, specifically examining if pigeons broadcast information that conspecifics may use to anticipate their actions, like humans do. These projects allow us to examine how purely visual approaches to action recognition might differ from embodied approaches supported by mirror neuron processing.
General cognition
These studies all examine how information is extracted from vision, but processing beyond vision can be critical for complex cognitive behaviors. This not-strictly-visual cognition allows us and other animals to complete cognitive tricks like categorizing new and old things, organizing behaviors to achieve goals, or integrating information across sensory modalities. Recent exciting collaborations with non-human primates are revealing the possible evolution of endogenously controlled attention. Another line of studies questions how mnemonic-and-accurate cues are utilized when current-but-inaccurate are also available. While mammals use the former more reliable cue, pigeons seem to rely on the currently available, though inaccurate, cue. Understanding why these differences occur will gain us a deeper understanding of how we became the cognitive creatures we are today – or perhaps may reveal the simpler associative rules that truly underlie human behavior.
Selected references
Qadri, M.A.J., Murphy, M.S., Cook, R.G. (in press). Impact of Sequential Organization on Auditory Same/Different Discrimination by Pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition.
Qadri, M.A.J.+, Gray, S.L.+ (2025). Examination of hierarchical form perception in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Learning & Behavior. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-024-00664-x
Nosofsky, R.M., Cook, R.G., Qadri, M.A.J., Hu, M. (2024). Modeling within-session dynamics of categorical and item-memory mechanisms in pigeons. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 31, 1420-1444. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-023-02416-w
Gray, S.L., Qadri, M.A.J., Cook, R.G. (2023). Dynamically occluded action recognition by pigeons. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 85, 2515-2530. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-023-02668-7
DiGirolamo, G.J., DiDominica, M., Qadri, M.A.J., Kellman, P.J., Krasne, S., Massey, C., Rosen, M.P. (2023). Multiple expressions of “expert” abnormality gist in novices following perceptual learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 8(10), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-023-00462-5
Qadri, M.A.J., Cook, R.G. (2021). Adaptive testing of the critical features in 2D-shape discrimination by pigeons and starlings. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 47, 281-302. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000307
Qadri, M.A.J., Ashby, F.G.A., Smith, J.D., Cook, R.G. (2019). Testing analogical rule transfer in pigeons (Columba livia). Cognition 183, 256-268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.11.011