Natural Preferences of Chicks and Ducklings for Objects of Different Colors

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Abstract
A technique has been described whereby preferences of animals for a large number of stimuli can be studied simultaneously, and the responses automatically recorded. Groups of Ss are presented with a number of colored stimuli on the sides of an enclosure. Pecks are recorded on electrical counters. Data are presented showing that differential responses to colored objects do occur in chicks ( N=200) and ducklings ( N=100) that have had very limited visual experience and no opportunity for directed learning. It must therefore be supposed that these responses are innately organized. For the chicks there is a bimodal preference to color, with one peak occurring in the orange region of the spectrum and a second peak in the blue region. The ducklings, on the other hand, have a narrower range of preference with a single sharp peak within the green and yellowish-green region. The color preference curves of chicks and ducklings are obviously quite dissimilar. The dissimilarity suggests some functional determinant, but the nature of the determinant is as yet unknown.

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