Social feeding in domestic chicks

Abstract

1. 1. A series of experiments related to the feeding of individual chicks in groups is reported. 2. 2. In Experiment I chicks were tested for amount of food consumed under a variety of social conditions at varying lengths of food deprivation. The data obtained ( a) confirmed an earlier finding that social facilitation depends for its occurrence on unrestricted social interaction among chicks; ( b) showed that social facilitation is optimal in the area of 6 hours of food deprivation and only minimal, if existent, at 0, 12 and 24 hours of food deprivation; and ( c) showed that increased number of like-deprived companions does not increase the amount of social facilitation. 3. 3. Experiment II was designed to produce data on emotionality in some of the conditions used in Experiment I for the purpose of testing the hypothesis that the differences in Experiment 1, i.e. social facilitation, could be accounted for by emotion produced by restricted contact with a companion. The hypothesis was not confirmed by the data. 4. 4. In Experiment III deprivation of the companion was varied while that of the subject was held constant. It was found that the amount of feeding behaviour of the subject varied directly with the deprivation of the companion. 5. 5. Experiment IV was concerned with the effect of number of companions. The companions in this experiment were more deprived than the subjects. The results confirmed those of Experiment I in that no difference could be demonstrated due to number of companions. 6. 6. It was concluded that social facilitation is the product of some specific kind of behavioural interaction and that the amount of food consumed by the subject member of a pair is positively related to the hours of food deprivation of the subject and companion member, however, the size of the effect of increasing the companion's deprivation is inversely related to the hours of food deprivation of the subject.