Damian Scarf|Karoline Boy|Anelisie Uber Reinert|Jack Devine|Onur Güntürkün|Michael Colombo
Orthographic processing in pigeons ( <i>Columba livia</i> )
University of Otago|Ruhr University Bochum|Ruhr University Bochum|University of Otago|Ruhr University Bochum|University of Otago
learning read involves acquisition lettersound relationships ie decoding skills ability visually recognize words ie orthographic knowledge although decoding skills clearly humanunique given seated language recent research theory suggest orthographic processing may derive exaptation recycling visual circuits evolved recognize everyday objects shapes natural environment open question whether orthographic processing limited visual circuits similar product plasticity common many vertebrate visual systems show pigeons organisms separated humans 300 million ago process words orthographically specifically demonstrate pigeons trained discriminate words nonwords picked orthographic properties define words used knowledge identify words never seen addition pigeons sensitive bigram frequencies words ie common cooccurrence certain letter pairs edit distance nonwords words internal structure words findings demonstrate visual systems organizationally distinct primate visual system also exapted recycled process visual word form