Effects of early and delayed visual experience on intersensory development in bobwhite quail chicks.

The relative impact of early versus delayed visual experience on intersensory development was studied by manipulating the timing of visual experience of bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) embryos and hatchlings. Previous studies with quail chicks have revealed that: (1) Socially reared chicks require only maternal auditory cues to direct their social preferences in the first 2 days following hatching; (2) by 3 days following hatching chicks require both auditory and visual maternal cues to direct their social preferences; (3) chicks which have received unusually early visual experience as embryos require both auditory and visual cues by 24 hr following hatching, indicating an accelerated pattern of the emergence of intersensory functioning; and (4) chicks reared under conditions of attenuated social and visual experience continue to rely on maternal auditory cues alone at 4 days following hatching, indicating a decelerated pattern of early intersensory functioning. In the present study, quail chicks that received both early visual experience as embryos and delayed visual experience as hatchlings exhibited a pattern of both auditory and visual responsiveness like that seen in normally reared chicks. These results indicate that, at least under the present experimental conditions, the influence of early and delayed visual experience on perinatal perceptual development appears to be relatively comparable in effect.