Food imprinting in the domestic chick: A reconsideration

Abstract

Experimental chicks were trained to peck a green stimulus for food in preference to a blue stimulus at the ages of 1, 3, or 5 days old within a socialized or isolated condition. The birds were tested on four subsequent days without food in order to ascertain the generality of “food imprinting. ” On the initial reinforced day, the chicks discriminated between the two stimuli, older birds pecked more than younger ones, and those within the socialized condition more than the isolated ones. A rapid decline in the frequency of responses over the nonreinforced days was interpreted as extinction of a discriminative response rather than as “food imprinting.”