Volume 4, Number 3, Article 10, Pages 241-249 doi:10.1167/4.3.10 http://journalofvision.org/4/3/10/ ISSN 1534-7362
Brightness discrimination in the dog
Gabriele Pretterer
Institute for Physiology, Veterinary University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Hermann Bubna-Littitz
Institute for Physiology, Veterinary University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Gerhard Windischbauer
Institute for Medical Physics and Biostatistics, Veterinary, University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Cornelia Gabler
Institute for Medical Physics and Biostatistics, Veterinary, University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Ulrike Griebel
The University of Memphis, Department of Biology, Memphis, TN, USA
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Abstract

Almost nothing is known about brightness discrimination in animals and how this ability relates to their lifestyles. As arrhythmic visual generalists, three dogs, a German shepherd and two Belgian shepherds, were tested on their ability to discriminate brightness using a series of 30 shades of grey varying from white to black. The dogs were trained to discriminate between different shades of grey in a simultaneous two-choice situation. Weber’s law can be correlated to their ability to discriminate brightness differences with a calculated Weber fraction of 0.22 for the German shepherd and 0.27 for the Belgian shepherds. Thus brightness discrimination in dogs is about 2 times worse than in humans, a diurnal species.

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History
Received June 15, 2003; published April 6, 2004
Citation
Pretterer, G., Bubna-Littitz, H., Windischbauer, G., Gabler, C., & Griebel, U. (2004). Brightness discrimination in the dog. Journal of Vision, 4(3):10, 241-249, http://journalofvision.org/4/3/10/, doi:10.1167/4.3.10.
Keywords
dog, Canis familiaris, brightness discrimination
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