Abstract
Two groups of hatchling snapping turtles, without prior feeding experience, were given a meal of either meat or worms. One week later each group was fed the food it had not experienced earlier. The following week each turtle was tested for its preference between the two foods. The two groups of turtles differed significantly in the direction of preferring the first fed food. However, the two foods did not have equal effects. This indicates that although the first feeding experience has a primacy effect, this experience interacts with natural preferences in influencing subsequent behavior.
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1. This investigation was supported in part by Public Health. Service Research Grant 776, from the National Institute of Mental Health, awarded to Eckhard H. Hess. Erich Klinghammer generously supplied the gravid turtle.
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Burghardt, G.M. The primacy effect of the first feeding experience in the snapping turtle. Psychon Sci 7, 383–384 (1967). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03331135
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03331135