h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How long is a S-D rat's attention span?

If humans are missing two kinds of cones, how can you control if a touchscreen monitor is malfunctioning, by the pigeon's perception? What range are each of a pigeon's cones sensitive to? (for instance, cats have two cones, in particular, the blue and green, so presumably red through green look much the same to a cat)

Can cue competition be described by a driver on a cell phone getting into more accidents?

Q1: it depends upon what aspect of their attention you are measuring. For delayed matching to sample, they seem to retain the current trial info for only a few minutes. For a radial maze task, they have been shown to remember trial content for as long as 12 hours.

Q2: Computer (and tv) monitors have been designed for human trichromatic perception, thus we will know if it is malfunctioning. I don't know the specific ranges of the cones in the pigeon's retina, but four of them are sensitive to visible spectrum light while the fifth detects light energy in the ultraviolet range. The use of computer monitors is worrysome because of this difference, so the best we can do (for now) is carefuly control the conditions under which the data are collected and acknowledge that the pigeons might be seeing more things, and differently, than we do. (I'm red-green colorblind, so I am very aware of these issues because I've been dealing with them all my life!)

Q3: Most theories support the idea that cue competition acts at a more central level of processing than attention, such as acquisision or retrieval of associations. So the answer to your question is "probably not."

However, another interpretation of your third question is: Yes, a driver on a cell phone can describe cue competition to whoever is at the other end of the line, and said driver may be getting into more accidents by engaging in such dangerous behavior. The driver should stick to describing simple behavioral phenomena on the cell phone while driving, such as patting the head and rubbing the belly at the same time (though the driver should not engage in this act while driving!).

Thanks!