A Rose in Any Other Context: Context Alters the Responses of Both Birds and Rodents to Novel Objects

The detection of novelty is a cognitive ability that is fundamental to survival. Following detection, a decision must be made to either approach (neophilia) or avoid (neophobia) the novel stimulus. The tendency to choose one strategy over the other is referred to as an animal's neotic preference. To date, the bulk of research reports that mammals are neophilic, while birds tend to be neophobic. These data, however, are differentiated not only by the class of animal (i.e., Mammalia vs. Aves), but also by the testing methods used, namely the context in which testing occurs.

To disentangle these factors, we assessed the reaction to novelty in two commonly used domesticated species, rats and pigeons, within two different contexts, a novel testing arena (common for mammals) and within the home cage (common for birds).

Here, we show that both rats and pigeons show neophobia in the home cage and neophilia in a testing arena, demonstrating that some degree of the differences previously reported are likely due to testing protocols. Moreover, individual scores in one testing protocol did not predict testing scores in the other.

These results limit the ability to: (a) compare findings across these paradigms and (b) conceive of neotic preference as a single stable trait across multiple (especially novel) contexts.