Special efficacy of sexual conditioned stimuli that include species typical cues: Tests with a conditioned stimuli preexposure design

Limited female cues may serve as conditioned stimuli (CSs) in natural sequences of male sexual behavior. The present experiments used the CS preexposure paradigm to investigate how male Japanese quail respond to a CS object that includes the taxidermically prepared head and partial neck of a female quail. This CS object did not elicit approach or copulatory behavior the first time it was presented. However, subjects came to approach and copulate with the CS to a moderate extent after repeated nonreinforced CS exposures. Further increases in approach and copulatory behavior occurred when the CS was subsequently paired with copulatory opportunity. An otherwise identical CS that lacked the limited female cues did not elicit responding as a result of preexposure and elicited much less copulatory behavior after pairings with copulatory opportunity. These findings are consistent with the conclusion that male quail have a predisposition to respond to the species typical cues of a female's head and neck. However, repeated stimulus exposure or association with copulatory reinforcement is required to reveal this predisposition. (C) 1998 Academic Press.