Constitutional biases in early perceptual learning: III. Similarities and differences between artificially selected and imprinted color preferences in quail chicks (Coturnix coturnix japonica).

Color preferences and preference generalization were tested in naive and imprinted Japanese quail chicks drawn from the 20th generation of a genetic control line and two genetic lines that were bidirectionally selected for preferences between blue and red. Twelve hours of imprinting to blue or red on the first posthatch day resulted in large preference changes in the genetic controls, and these subjects exhibited no or only small additional changes from 3 more days of imprinting (for the total of 66 hr of exposure time). By contrast, 12 hr of imprinting of artificially selected subjects did not change or only marginally changed their genetically manipulated preferences, but 66 hr of imprinting changed them by magnitudes as large as or larger than those in genetic controls. Reciprocal imprinting partially mimicked the phenotypic effects of bidirectional selection. Differences between transfer and generalization of phenotypically similar but genetically and experimentally different preferences indicated dissimilar mediation of the implicit gene effects and learning effects.