Abstract
One- and 4-day-old chicks were trained on a successive go/no-go discrimination to determine whether an increase in the length of the intertriai interval (ITI) would improve discrimination performance. For all intervals, the 4-day-old chicks showed a greater separation in response latencies on S+ and S− trials than did the 1-day-old chicks, and chicks of both ages showed a similar decrease in their differential performance onS+ and S− trials as the ITI length was increased. These results do not support the assumption that the young animal learns best with long rather than short intervals between trials.
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Supported by Grant MH 24260 from the National Institute of Mental Health and by NIMH Predoctoral Fellowship I F3IMH07306 to B. A. Mattingly. We thank Joyce A. Hall and Christie L. Sahley for their assistance in behavioral testing.
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Mattingly, B.A., Zolman, J.F. Intertrial interval length and discrimination learning in young chicks. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 13, 314–316 (1979). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336881
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336881