Solids or Prints? Gallus gallus domesticus Hens Learn Color Association Faster Than Pattern Association
Event Type
Research Presentation
Academic Department
Biology
Location
Dana Science Building, 2nd floor
Start Date
26-4-2024 1:30 PM
End Date
26-4-2024 3:00 PM
Description
Under the direction of Dr. Renee Godard
The cognitive abilities of domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) is an area of research that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years as the considerable cognitive abilities of avians as a whole are becoming more widely recognized, and associative learning is a simple test of cognitive abilities widely utilized in research. Color and pattern are two stimuli easily recognizable & readily learned by domestic chickens, but associative learning of these stimuli have primarily been studied in chicks, not adult birds. In order to evaluate the relative difficulty of learning these stimuli types in domestic chickens, a series of trials were utilized to measure the rate at which hens learned to associate a positive stimulus with a food reward: one set of trials using solid colors as stimuli & one set using patterns. Trials of increasing difficulty were administered for each stimuli type, with each trial type having unique graduation criteria, and the rate of learning was measured by the amount of attempts a subject underwent before reaching said criteria. My results found that the rate of learning in the experimental subjects was significantly faster when learning to associate a food reward with color stimuli than pattern, and that color association seemed to stay constant after shaping, while pattern association waned (the learning speed in the more complex pattern trial was significantly slower than the less complex trial).
Solids or Prints? Gallus gallus domesticus Hens Learn Color Association Faster Than Pattern Association
Dana Science Building, 2nd floor
Under the direction of Dr. Renee Godard
The cognitive abilities of domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) is an area of research that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years as the considerable cognitive abilities of avians as a whole are becoming more widely recognized, and associative learning is a simple test of cognitive abilities widely utilized in research. Color and pattern are two stimuli easily recognizable & readily learned by domestic chickens, but associative learning of these stimuli have primarily been studied in chicks, not adult birds. In order to evaluate the relative difficulty of learning these stimuli types in domestic chickens, a series of trials were utilized to measure the rate at which hens learned to associate a positive stimulus with a food reward: one set of trials using solid colors as stimuli & one set using patterns. Trials of increasing difficulty were administered for each stimuli type, with each trial type having unique graduation criteria, and the rate of learning was measured by the amount of attempts a subject underwent before reaching said criteria. My results found that the rate of learning in the experimental subjects was significantly faster when learning to associate a food reward with color stimuli than pattern, and that color association seemed to stay constant after shaping, while pattern association waned (the learning speed in the more complex pattern trial was significantly slower than the less complex trial).