title: Stimulus control of copulatory behavior in sexually naive male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica): effects of test context and stimulus movement.
abstract: Sexually experienced male quail (Coturnix japonica) are more likely to engage in copulatory behavior than sexually naive ones. These experiments suggest that sexual experience in a particular place may facilitate later copulatory responding because of increased familiarity with the contextual cues of the environment. Male quail in Experiment 1 did not copulate reliably with taxidermic models of females in a novel context, even though some of the subjects were allowed to copulate with female quail in their home cages. In contrast, sexually naive males in Experiments 2 and 3 copulated vigorously with taxidermic models of females in a familiar context. In Experiment 4, sexually naive males tested in an unfamiliar context were more likely to copulate with a moving than with a static model. The stimulus control of copulatory behavior in sexually naive male quail was similar to that in sexually experienced ones but only in familiar contexts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Akins
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domjan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003370:Coturnix; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal