Operant Response Pattern for Chicks in Imprinting and its Relation to their Following Responses

Abstract

It was investigated whether newly hatched chicks emitted some operant responses in bursts immediately after the presentation of a moving imprinting stimulus with sounds, a reinforcer which like brain stimulation reward. And the relation of these responses to the following response was examined and discussed.After three 15-min imprinting sessions over the first 3 days posthatch, three chicks selected according to the level of the following response time were trained to peck either of two colored keys (red & green) for the imprinting stimulus.In subsequent daily key peck training sessions (5-25 Days posthatch), reinforced peck responses tended to occur in bursts as seen in ducklings. Even a chick of poor following response time acquired and maintained such a response pattern. The probability of initiating a key peck response decreased as a function of the interresponse time.These findings imply that a reduction of following response in imprinting may be caused by the occurence of some operant responses acquired in process of ontogenical development and that the temporal pattern of operant responses in chick's imprinting reflects a priming effect.