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Lateral asymmetries due to preferences in eye use during visual discrimination learning in chicks
G Vallortigara1, L Regolin, G Bortolomiol
1Laboratorio di Psicologia sperimentale, Università di Udine, Italy. giorgio.vallortigara@ifp.uniud.it
Insights
Chicks show lateralized learning preferences. Positional cues favor right-hemisphere processing and left-eye use, while color cues engage the left hemisphere and right-eye preference.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Animal Cognition
- Avian Studies
Background:
- Chicks can learn to discriminate between visual stimuli.
- Lateralization of brain function is observed in various species, including birds.
- Understanding sensory cue processing and hemispheric specialization is crucial in cognitive science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate lateralized learning preferences in chicks based on positional versus color cues.
- To explore the relationship between head/body turning, eye use, and hemispheric specialization during learning tasks.
- To determine how changes in cue relevance (position vs. color) affect learning strategies and performance.
Main Methods:
- Chicks were trained to peck at boxes based on position.
- Retraining involved tasks with fixed or alternating box positions and varying color relevance.
- Behavioral analysis, including head and body turning, was recorded during trials.
- Learning efficiency was measured by trials and errors to criterion.
Main Results:
- Chicks learned faster with right-sided targets during initial training and fixed-position retraining.
- During alternating-position retraining (color irrelevant), chicks learned faster with left-sided targets.
- Behavioral observations revealed lateralized head and body turning linked to specific eye use.
Conclusions:
- Lateral asymmetries in chick learning reflect hemispheric specialization and contralateral eye preference.
- Positional cues appear to engage the right hemisphere, promoting rightward head turns for left-eye viewing.
- Object-specific cues (like color) seem to engage the left hemisphere, leading to leftward head turns for right-eye viewing.
Abstract:
Chicks were trained to discriminate between two boxes of the same colour (white) on the basis of their positions using the pecking response. Some chicks were trained to peck at the box on their right side, some at the box on their left side. They were then retrained with two boxes of different colours (one red the other green): in one group of chicks the position of the two boxes was randomly alternated in the various trials (thus making colour a conspicuous but irrelevant cue), in the other it was maintained unchanged. A control group was retrained with two white boxes identical to those used during training. In all of the three groups chicks had to discriminate between the two boxes on the basis of their positions. During training, chicks took less trial and errors to learn when the positive box was placed on their right side and the same occurred during retraining with boxes that maintained a fixed position and during retraining in the control condition. During retraining with position alternation, on the contrary, chicks took less trials and errors to learn when the positive box was placed on their left side. Video recording of the chicks' behaviour while approaching the boxes showed that these lateral asymmetries reflect head and body turning associated to preferences in eye use, likely due to the different specializations of contralateral brain structures. It is argued that position cues engage the right hemisphere, with consequent head turning to the right to allow lateral viewing by the left eye; object-specific cues engage the left hemisphere, with consequent head turning to the left to allow lateral viewing by the right eye.
