Memory formation for an appetitive visual discrimination task in young chicks.

The three-phase model of memory formation in young chicks proposed by Gibbs and Ng [7] was based on a single trial passive avoidance task. Some methodological and interpretative problems associated with this task are not encountered in appetitive visual discrimination tasks. Using such a task, it is shown that 2 mM KCl induces amnesia at 10 min, ouabain at 30 min and cycloheximide at 60 min after learning. These findings are consistent with those for the single trail passive avoidance task and confirm the generality of a model of memory formation in young chicks entailing a short-term phase, a sodium pumo-dependent labile phase, and a long-term, protein synthesis-dependent phase.