title: Enhanced learning of natural visual sequences in newborn chicks.
abstract: To what extent are newborn brains designed to operate over natural visual input? To address this question, we used a high-throughput controlled-rearing method to examine whether newborn chicks (Gallus gallus) show enhanced learning of natural visual sequences at the onset of vision. We took the same set of images and grouped them into either natural sequences (i.e., sequences showing different viewpoints of the same real-world object) or unnatural sequences (i.e., sequences showing different images of different real-world objects). When raised in virtual worlds containing natural sequences, newborn chicks developed the ability to recognize familiar images of objects. Conversely, when raised in virtual worlds containing unnatural sequences, newborn chicks' object recognition abilities were severely impaired. In fact, the majority of the chicks raised with the unnatural sequences failed to recognize familiar images of objects despite acquiring over 100 h of visual experience with those images. Thus, newborn chicks show enhanced learning of natural visual sequences at the onset of vision. These results indicate that newborn brains are designed to operate over natural visual input.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Building SGM, Room 501, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. justin.wood@usc.edu.
authors.forename: Justin N
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8383-024X
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Building SGM, Room 501, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
authors.forename: Aditya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Building SGM, Room 501, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
authors.forename: Jason G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Goldman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Building SGM, Room 501, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
authors.forename: Samantha M W
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002645:Chickens; D007858:Learning; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: Chicken; Controlled rearing; Gallus gallus; High throughput; Newborn; Object recognition