Contour Completion Threshold in Sepia Bandensis
Name of Award
3M Small Scale Grant
Date Awarded
2-2013
Department/School
Biology
Project Description
Cynthia Norton, Professor of Biology, and Andrea Jones, student researcher, received a $2,400 award from the 3M Small Scale Grant program to focus on the cuttlefish's ability to camouflage themselves. The project will look at the disruptive pattern, in which cuttlefish create larger patches of dark and light coloration to camouflage themselves against backgrounds with high contrast. Cuttlefish display this disruptive color patterning when placed on both whole circle backgrounds and fragmented circle backgrounds. However, when they are placed on a background in which the circle fragments are rotated, they show uniform patterning (no disruptive patterning). This suggests that they are able to use contour completion to recognize fragmented circles as whole circles and utilize disruptive camouflage accordingly. The study will test the threshold of their ability to complete fragmented circles by slowly reducing the space between fragments on an artificial background and observing camouflage reaction. This will expand on the previous research regarding contour completion and give scientists further insight into the camouflage capacity of Sepia species in shallow-water environments.
Recommended Citation
Norton, Cynthia PhD and Jones, Andrea, "Contour Completion Threshold in Sepia Bandensis" (2013). Internal Grant Awards. 129.
https://sophia.stkate.edu/internal_awards/129