Order-dependent timing of unimodal and multimodal stimulation affects prenatal auditory learning in bobwhite quail embryos

Honeycutt, Hunter; Lickliter, Robert

doi:10.1002/1098-2302(2001)38:1<1::aid-dev1>3.0.co;2-q

Cited by 31 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…Call A was recorded under conditions of a bobwhite hen leading her young away from the nest, and Call B was recorded from a bobwhite hen in a colony where no chicks were present. A number of studies have demonstrated that bobwhite chicks have no naive preference for either of these calls and are capable of acquiring significant preferences for either call (e.g., Honeycutt & Lickliter, 2001Lickliter, Bahrick, & Honeycutt, 2002;Lickliter & Hellewell, 1992).Distress vocalizations-Recordings of bobwhite chick distress/contact vocalizations were used during training in some conditions. Such calls can easily be distinguished from other chick vocalizations and generally consist of strings of rapid "peeps" (Stoumbos, 1990).…”

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Interactive and vicarious acquisition of auditory preferences in Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) chicks.

Harshaw

Lickliter

2007

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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Studies examining the effects of stimulus contingency on filial imprinting have produced inconsistent findings. In the current study, day-old bobwhite chicks (Colinus virginianus) received individual 5-min sessions in which they were provided contingent, noncontingent, or vicarious exposure to a variant of a bobwhite maternal assembly call. Chicks given contingent exposure to the call showed a significant preference for the familiar call 24 hr following exposure and significantly greater preferences than chicks given noncontingent exposure. Chicks given vicarious exposure to recordings of another chick interacting with the maternal call showed significant deviations from chance responding; however, the direction of chick preference (toward the familiar or unfamiliar) depended on the particular call used. These results indicate that both direct and indirect (vicarious) exposure to stimulus contingency can enhance the acquisition of auditory preferences in precocial avian hatchlings. Precocial avian hatchlings thus likely play a more active role in directing their own perceptual and behavioral development than has typically been thought. Keywordsfilial imprinting; contingency; interactive stimulation; vicarious learning; Northern bobwhite Social interaction and contingency are known to have potent influences on learning across a wide range of organisms and contexts. Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus), for example, have been shown to learn the proper use of referential labels only when provided interactive sessions with live tutors (e.g., Pepperberg, 1994Pepperberg, , 1998. Human infants have also been found to produce more sophisticated vocalizations when their mothers respond to their babbling in a contingent manner (Goldstein, King, & West, 2003). In contrast to such findings, filial imprinting has traditionally been viewed as a special type of learning that occurs largely independent of contingent interaction or overt reinforcement (e.g., Lorenz, 1935Lorenz, , 1937.A number of studies have directly examined the effects of stimulus contingency on the behavior of precocial hatchlings, the majority of which have focused on whether imprinting stimuli are capable of functioning as reinforcers. Such studies have demonstrated that precocial avian neonates will indeed work to be exposed to such stimuli (e.g., Bateson & Reese, 1968;Campbell & Pickleman, 1961;Eacker & Meyer, 1967;Gaioni, Hoffman, DePaulo, & Stratton, 1978;Hoffman, Schiff, Adams, & Searle, 1966;Meyer, 1968;Peterson, 1960). Relatively few studies, on the other hand, have examined the effects of contingency on the formation of filial preferences. Some of these studies have reported enhanced acquisition of filial preferences under conditions of stimulus contingency (e.g., Bateson & Reese, 1969;Evans, 1991;Johnson, Bolhuis, & Horn, 1985; ten Cate, 1989b), whereas others have found little or no difference in the level of filial preference between chicks provided with contingent versus noncontingent exposure to stimuli (Bolhuis & Johnson, 1988; ten Cate...

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Interactive and vicarious acquisition of auditory preferences in Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) chicks.

Harshaw

Lickliter

2007

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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“…Observed preference scores for the Control group are shown in Table 3b. These results converge with previous findings on prenatal perceptual learning in bobwhite quail (Honeycutt & Lickliter, 2001;Lickliter, Bahrick, and Honeycutt, 2002;Lickliter & Hellewell, 1992;Sleigh, Columbus, & Lickliter, 1998). They also demonstrate that bobwhite quail neonates previously trained with prenatal exposure to a bimodally synchronous maternal call can transfer their perceptual learning skills to postnatal life and discriminate a familiar unimodal call from a novel unimodal maternal call at testing.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This finding highlights the powerful role that timing plays on the effectiveness of bimodally redundant stimulation. Quail embryos appear to be highly sensitive to the timing of presentation of stimulation (see also Honeycutt & Lickliter, 2001) and appear to benefit from its occurrence at the onset of the multisensory event.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been established that an important feature of intersensory redundancy that facilitates prenatal perceptual learning is the temporal synchrony of bimodal stimulation. Further, previous comparative studies with bobwhite quail chicks have demonstrated that concurrent but asynchronous prenatal exposure to bimodal stimulation disrupts prenatal learning (Honeycutt & Lickliter, 2001;Lickliter & Hellewell, 1992). This asynchronous stimulation has been shown to elevate the embryos' physiological arousal, likely contributing to a shift in attentional processes (Reynolds & Lickliter, 2002).…”

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Temporal Synchrony in the Facilitation of Perceptual Learning during Prenatal Development

Jaime¹

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This study explored the critical features of temporal synchrony for the facilitation of prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation using an animal model, the bobwhite quail. The following related hypotheses were examined: (1) the availability of temporal synchrony is a critical feature to facilitate prenatal perceptual learning, (2) a single temporally synchronous note is sufficient to facilitate prenatal perceptual learning, with respect to unimodal stimulation, and (3) in situations where embryos are exposed to a single temporally synchronous note, facilitated perceptual learning, with respect to unimodal stimulation, will be optimal when the temporally synchronous note occurs at the onset of the stimulation bout.To assess these hypotheses, two experiments were conducted in which quail embryos were exposed to various audio-visual configurations of a bobwhite maternal call and tested at 24 hr after hatching for evidence of facilitated prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation. Experiment 1 explored if intermodal equivalence was sufficient to facilitate prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation. A Bimodal Sequential Temporal Equivalence (BSTE) condition was created v that provided embryos with sequential auditory and visual stimulation in which the same amodal properties (rate, duration, rhythm) were made available across modalities. Experiment 2 assessed: (a) whether a limited number of temporally synchronous notes are sufficient for facilitated prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation, and (b) whether there is a relationship between timing of occurrence of a temporally synchronous note and the facilitation of prenatal perceptual learning.Results revealed that prenatal exposure to BSTE was not sufficient to facilitate perceptual learning. In contrast, a maternal call that contained a single temporally synchronous note was sufficient to facilitate embryos' prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation. Furthermore, the most salient prenatal condition was that which contained the synchronous note at the onset of the call burst. Embryos' prenatal perceptual learning of the call was four times faster in this condition than when exposed to a unimodal call. Taken together, bobwhite quail embryos' remarkable sensitivity to temporal synchrony suggests that this amodal property plays a key role in attention and learning during prenatal development.

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“…In fact, a number of studies with infants have demonstrated that asynchronous exposure disrupts learning of amodal properties such as rhythm and affect (Flom & Bahrick, 2007 (Honeycutt & Lickliter, 2001;Lickliter & Hellewell, 1992).…”

Section: Intersensory Facilitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tests of the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis across Early Postnatal Development

Vaillant‐Mekras¹

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The Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis (IRH; , 2012 predicts that early in development information presented to a single sense modality will selectively recruit attention to modality-specific properties of stimulation and facilitate learning of those properties at the expense of amodal properties (unimodal facilitation).Vaillant (2010) demonstrated that bobwhite quail chicks prenatally exposed to a maternal call alone (unimodal stimulation) are able to detect a pitch change, a modality-specific property, in subsequent postnatal testing between the familiarized call and the same call with altered pitch. In contrast, chicks prenatally exposed to a maternal call paired with a temporally synchronous light (redundant audiovisual stimulation) were unable to detect a pitch change. According to the IRH (Bahrick & Lickliter, 2012), as development proceeds and the individual's perceptual abilities increase, the individual should detect modality-specific properties in both nonredundant, unimodal and redundant, bimodal conditions. However, when the perceiver is presented with a difficult task, relative to their level of expertise, unimodal facilitation should become evident. The first experiment of the present study exposed bobwhite quail chicks 24 hr after hatching to unimodal vi auditory, nonredundant audiovisual, or redundant audiovisual presentations of a maternal call for 10min/hr for 24 hours. All chicks were subsequently tested 24 hr after the completion of the stimulation (72 hr following hatching) between the familiarized maternal call and the same call with altered pitch. Chicks from all experimental groups (unimodal, nonredundant audiovisual, and redundant audiovisual exposure) significantly preferred the familiarized call over the pitch-modified call. The second experiment exposed chicks to the same exposure conditions, but created a more difficult task by narrowing the pitch range between the two maternal calls with which they were tested.Chicks in the unimodal and nonredundant audiovisual conditions demonstrated detection of the pitch change, whereas the redundant audiovisual exposure group did not show detection of the pitch change, providing evidence of unimodal facilitation. These results are consistent with predictions of the IRH and provide further support for the effects of unimodal facilitation and the role of task difficulty across early development.

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Order-dependent timing of unimodal and multimodal stimulation affects prenatal auditory learning in bobwhite quail embryos

Cited by 31 publications

References 21 publications

Interactive and vicarious acquisition of auditory preferences in Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) chicks.

Interactive and vicarious acquisition of auditory preferences in Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) chicks.

The Role of Temporal Synchrony in the Facilitation of Perceptual Learning during Prenatal Development

Tests of the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis across Early Postnatal Development

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