CONDITIONING COPULATORY-BEHAVIOR TO AN ARTIFICIAL OBJECT - EFFICACY OF STIMULUS FADING

Copulatory behavior rarely occurs in response to an arbitrary inanimate object. However, such behavior can provide important information about the stimulus control of copulatory behavior. In the present study, male Japanese quail were administered 15-20 conditioning trials that included exposure to an inanimate object and an opportunity to copulate with a live female quail. For some subjects, the stimulus object was always entirely covered with terrycloth. For other birds, the stimulus object contained a taxidermically prepared head and neck of a quail hen. Fading consisted of gradually covering up the neck and then the head portions of the stimulus object over successive trials. After conditioning, all subjects were tested with the entirely covered object. The fading procedure facilitated the conditioning of copulatory behavior to the entirely artificial object. In subjects that received the fading procedure, learning did not depend on pairings of the stimulus object with copulatory opportunity. The results are discussed with respect to an associative mediation mechanism.