Generalization of visual regularities in newly hatched chicks (Gallus gallus).
Evidence of learning and generalization of visual regularities in a newborn organism is provided in the present research. Domestic chicks have been trained to discriminate visual triplets of simultaneously presented shapes, implementing AAB versus ABA (Experiment 1), AAB versus ABB and AAB versus BAA (Experiment 2). Chicks distinguished pattern-following and pattern-violating novel test triplets in all comparisons, showing no preference for repetition-based patterns. The animals generalized to novel instances even when the patterns compared were not discriminable by the presence or absence of reduplicated elements or by symmetry (e.g., AAB vs. ABB). These findings represent the first evidence of learning and generalization of regularities at the onset of life in an animal model, revealing intriguing differences with respect to human newborns and infants. Extensive prior experience seems to be unnecessary to drive the process, suggesting that chicks are predisposed to detect patterns characterizing the visual world.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. chiara.santolin@gmail.com.|Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500, Highland Avenue, Madison, WI, 53705, USA. chiara.santolin@gmail.com.|Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy. chiara.santolin@gmail.com.
Chiara
C
Santolin
CIMeC, Center for Mind-Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
Orsola
O
Rosa-Salva
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Lucia
L
Regolin
CIMeC, Center for Mind-Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
Giorgio
G
Vallortigara
D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D014796:Visual Perception
Domestic chick; Generalization; Newborn model; Regularities