Evolution and development of global visual processing: a comparative and developmental approach.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Niigata University of International and Information Studies
• Principal Investigator: Imura Tomoko 新潟国際情報大学, 情報文化学部, 准教授 (00552423)
• Research Collaborator: TOMONAGA Masaki 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 教授 (70237139) ; SHIRAI Nobu 新潟大学, 人文学部, 准教授 (50554367)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: アンサンブル知覚 / チンパンジー / 比較認知科学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We examined how the ability of global visual information processing has evolved, from the viewpoint of comparative cognitive science. Recent studies have reported that humans can extract "average" features such as color, size and expression from a group of objects and people. Nonhuman primates and birds tend to use local rather than global information processing. However, this study showed that chimpanzees, the closest species to humans, perceived the "average" size of multiple circles. This is the first time that nonhuman animals have been shown to use statistical properties of visual information in global visual processing.

Free Research Field

比較認知科学