Way-finding (or spatial navigation) is a vitally important behavior. Any disruption of way-finding mechanisms causes serious problems for many people. Although much is known about the mechanisms by which people and animals navigate through space, fundamental questions remain. Many of these questions concern how landmarks are used during way finding. In the research proposed here, a new approach emphasizing the use of absolute and relative directional information will be pursued with a particularly appropriate animal model, taking advantage of a natural system. This natural system involves an unusual degree of extremely precise spatial navigation using local landmarks. This research has the potential to yield important new information about the integration of different sources of spatial information that will be relevant to developing a better understanding of way finding at both the neural and behavioral levels. How animals find their way, how way finding is encoded, how it is represented and how it is remembered are puzzles still not thoroughly understood despite remarkable progress in the last 15 years. The proposed research is grounded in knowledge of the ecology and natural history of the subject species, Nucifraga columbiana, (Clark's nutcrackers). Individual nutcrackers face the problem in nature of relocating the many thousands of seeds they cache in the ground during the fall in many thousands of locations. The nutcrackers use this information to later return to these caches as their primary food source during winter and spring. The researchers intend to discover how nutcrackers integrate information from multiple landmarks, how such information is integrated with compass information, and how nutcrackers plan a route of visitation to a series of caches.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH061810-02
Application #
6392818
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-1 (01))
Program Officer
Kurtzman, Howard S
Project Start
2000-08-01
Project End
2005-07-31
Budget Start
2001-08-01
Budget End
2002-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$252,076
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Nebraska Lincoln
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
555456995
City
Lincoln
State
NE
Country
United States
Zip Code
68588
Lewis, Jody L; Kamil, Alan C; Webbink, Kate E (2013) Changing room cues reduces the effects of proactive interference in Clark's Nutcrackers, Nucifraga columbiana. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 39:187-92
Kelly, Debbie M (2010) Features enhance the encoding of geometry. Anim Cogn 13:453-62
Kelly, Debbie M; Bischof, Walter F (2008) Orienting in virtual environments: How are surface features and environmental geometry weighted in an orientation task? Cognition 109:89-104
Kelly, D M; Kippenbrock, S; Templeton, J et al. (2008) Use of a geometric rule or absolute vectors: landmark use by Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana). Brain Res Bull 76:293-9
Lewis, Jody L; Kamil, Alan C (2006) Interference effects in the memory for serially presented locations in Clark's nutcrackers, Nucifraga columbiana. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 32:407-18
Kelly, Debbie M; Bischof, Walter F (2005) Reorienting in images of a three-dimensional environment. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 31:1391-403
Kelly, Debbie M; Spetch, Marcia L (2004) Reorientation in a two-dimensional environment: I. Do adults encode the featural and geometric properties of a two-dimensional schematic of a room? J Comp Psychol 118:82-94
Kelley, Debbie M; Spetch, Marcia L (2004) Reorientation in a two-dimensional environment: II. Do pigeons (Columba livia) encode the featural and geometric properties of a two-dimensional schematic of a room? J Comp Psychol 118:384-95
Spetch, Marcia L; Rust, Tiana B; Kamil, Alan C et al. (2003) Searching by rules: pigeons' (Columba livia) landmark-based search according to constant bearing or constant distance. J Comp Psychol 117:123-32
Kelly, Debbie M; Cook, Robert G (2003) Differential effects of visual context on pattern discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia) and humans (Homo sapiens). J Comp Psychol 117:200-8

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