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Intersensory redundancy educates selective attention in bobwhite quail embryos
Author(s) -
Lickliter Robert,
Bahrick Lorraine E.,
Markham Rebecca G.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00539.x
Subject(s) - amodal perception , psychology , bobwhite quail , audiology , stimulation , developmental psychology , hatching , quail , communication , neuroscience , perception , biology , medicine , zoology , endocrinology
We assessed whether exposure to amodal properties in bimodal stimulation (e.g. rhythm, rate, duration) could educate attention to amodal properties in subsequent unimodal stimulation during prenatal development. Bobwhite quail embryos were exposed to an individual bobwhite maternal call under several experimental and control conditions during the day prior to hatching. Experimental groups received redundant auditory and visual exposure to the temporal features of an individual maternal call followed by unimodal auditory exposure to the same call immediately or after a 2‐hr or 4‐hr delay. Control groups received (1) the same exposure but in the reverse sequence (unimodal → redundant bimodal), (2) asynchronous bimodal → unimodal, (3) only unimodal exposure, or (4) only bimodal exposure. All experimental groups showed a significant preference for the familiar maternal call over a novel maternal call when tested 2 days after hatching, whereas none of the control groups showed a significant preference for the familiar call. These results indicate that intersensory redundancy can direct attention to amodal properties in bimodal stimulation and educate attention to the same amodal properties in subsequent unimodal stimulation where no intersensory redundancy is available.