Some comments on visual perception and the use of video playback in animal behavior studies (original) (raw)

Abstract

Video playback experiments are potentially powerful tools in behavioral research. A video screen mimics natural color, brightness, texture, and motion to humans (for which it was designed) because monitors stimulate human photoreceptors in approximately the same relative proportions as the stimuli that they mimic. Because most animals have vision that is very different from that of humans their cones may be stimulated very differently from ours, and an image that looks excellent to us may be unrecognizable to them, and vice versa. In this article we summarize how the simulation of a monitor works and the ways it can go wrong, using a bird and a fish model retina as examples. Finally we make some recommendations for minimizing some of these problems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308-2311, USA e-mail: Fleishman@union.edu Tel.: +1 518-388-6332, Fax: +1 518-388-6429, , , , , , US
    L. J. Fleishman
  2. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA, , , , , , US
    J. A. Endler

Authors

  1. L. J. Fleishman
  2. J. A. Endler

Additional information

Received: 10 November 1999 / Received in revised form: 22 February 2000 / Accepted: 2 March 2000

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Fleishman, L., Endler, J. Some comments on visual perception and the use of video playback in animal behavior studies.acta ethol 3, 15–27 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s102110000025

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