Enhancement and retardation of discrimination learning in chicks after exposure to the discriminanda.

Abstract

Used an imprinting procedure to expose groups of Ross domestic chicks (N = 57) to 1 or 2 moving objects on Days 1-5 after hatching for a total of 30 or 100 min. From Day 8-12 Ss were given a discrimination learning task. Ss exposed to 1 of the discriminanda learned the task in fewer trials than Ss exposed to neither. However, Ss that had been exposed to both stimuli took many more trials to reach criterion than Ss that had seen neither in the imprinting situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)