Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Effects Of Prenatal And Early Postnatal Exposure To Aversive Stimuli On Fearfulness And Exploratory Behavior In Bobwhite Qauil Neonates (Colinus Virginianus), Michael Suarez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neophobia, the fear of novelty, is a behavioral trait found across a number of animal species, including humans. Neophobic individuals perceive novel environments and stimuli to have aversive properties, and exhibit fearful behaviors when presented with non-familiar situations. The present study examined how early life exposure to aversive novel stimuli could reduce neophobia in bobwhite quail chicks. Experiment 1 exposed chicks to a novel auditory tone previously shown to be aversive to naïve chicks (Suarez, 2012) for 24 hours immediately after hatching, then subsequently tested them in the presence of the tone within a novel maze task. Postnatally exposed chicks …