2ND-ORDER SEXUAL CONDITIONING IN MALE JAPANESE-QUAIL (COTURNIX-JAPONICA)

Second-order conditioning of social approach to a female conspecific i n male Japanese quail was investigated in four experiments. Subjects t hat received paired first- and second-order trials acquired second-ord er conditioning in both Experiments 1 and 2. In contrast, subjects tha t received paired first-order but unpaired second-order trials, and su bjects that received unpaired first-order but paired second-order tria ls, did not acquire second-order conditioning. In Experiment 3, subjec ts for whom the first-order conditioned stimulus was presented in exti nction showed second-order conditioning comparable to that shown by su bjects in a control group that did not receive the extinction procedur e. In Experiment 4, subjects approached a second-order stimulus less w hen sexually satiated than when sexually deprived. These findings sugg est that second-order sexual conditioning in quail is mediated by an a ssociation of the second-order stimulus with a representation of the u nconditioned stimulus.