ONE-TRIAL APPETITIVE CONDITIONING IN THE SEXUAL-BEHAVIOR SYSTEM

One-trial Pavlovian conditioning has been demonstrated with aversive r einforcers such as electric shock and lithium chloride. The present ex periments using male Japanese quail were conducted to determine if an appetitive unconditioned stimulus (US), the opportunity to copulate wi th a female quail, can also generate one-trial learning. In Experiment 1, subjects were exposed to a contextual conditioned stimulus (CS) fo r 35 sec and then given copulatory opportunity. In Experiment 2, male birds were given 0, 2, or 4 min of exposure to the contextual CS befor e presentation of a female. In both cases, control groups received com parable exposure to both the contextual CS and the sexual US, but in a n unpaired fashion. Subjects were tested for sexual learning by reintr oducing them to the experimental context in the presence of a test obj ect that incorporated the taxidermically prepared head of a female qua il. In both Experiments 1 and 2, subjects for whom the contextual CS a nd sexual US had been paired displayed significantly more approach to the test object than did unpaired subjects.