Approach/avoidance responses of domestic chicks to familiar and unfamiliar video images of biologically neutral stimuli

• Published in: Applied animal behaviour science 1996-06, Vol.48 (1), p.81-98
• Main Authors: Jones, R.Bryan, Larkins, Christopher, Hughes, Barry O.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Approach/avoidance; AUDIOVISUAL AIDS; BEHAVIOUR; CHICKENS; COMPORTAMIENTO; COMPORTEMENT; Domestic chick; Environmental enrichment; ESTIMULO; Familiarity; MEDIOS AUDIOVISUALES; MOYEN AUDIOVISUEL; POLLO; POULET; STIMULI; STIMULUS; Video images; VISION
• ISSN: 0168-1591; 1872-9045
• DOI: 10.1016/0168-1591(95)01003-3

Individually housed chicks received daily exposure to one of two biologically neutral video images in their home environment up to 9–11 days of age in three experiments. The video images comprised an illuminated but otherwise blank monitor screen (B) and a coloured, moving, complex screensaver stimulus (SS) and they were presented at one end of each chick's home box. In Experiment 1 a marked approach response developed with repeated exposures over 11 days to the video image in both the B and the SS treatment groups. In Experiment 2 chicks received daily exposure for 9 days to either the B or SS stimuli and they were then tested in a two-choice situation where both video stimuli were simultaneously visible at opposite ends of an otherwise unfamiliar runway. The SS chicks quickly approached the familiar stimulus and spent much of the test period in close proximity to it whereas the B chicks exhibited no preference for either stimulus. In Experiment 3 chicks were repeatedly exposed to one of two moderately different complex screensaver stimuli and they were then given a choice between these stimuli in the runway at 9 days. Neither group preferentially approached the familiar stimulus; in contrast the chicks spent longer near the unfamiliar image. It was concluded that both simple and complex video images assumed relevance and acquired attractive properties with repeated exposure, that there was an indication that complex images might possess some intrinsic attractive qualities, and that where competing complex stimuli were not very different the novel one was more attractive. Collectively, the present findings suggest that mild to moderate novelty presented in the home environment in the form of televised images readily became attractive to domestic chicks. Furthermore, they suggest that video images may have strategic as well as fundamental relevance; their potential value in improving our understanding of the chick's perception of its world and in the development of effective environmental enrichment devices is discussed.