Hemispheric memories for the content and position of food caches in the domestic chick

From Day 2 to Day 4 of life, chicks were fed daily in a large enclosure wit h 2 identical food caches, each filled with a different type of seed. On Da y 5, binocular and monocular chicks were fed in their home cages 1 type of seed exclusively for 30 min. At test, soon after this devaluation phase, bo th binocular and right-eyed chicks chose the food caches containing the see ds that had not been devalued; in contrast, left-eyed chicks did not show a clear choice. Experiments revealed that the asymmetry was not due to lack of motivation, worse spatial memory, or inability to remember the consequen ces of devaluation by left-eyed chicks. Results suggest that young chicks c an form declarative-like memories of the content of food caches. However, c hicks using their left eye (which provides a supply mainly to the right hem isphere) failed to integrate memory of the content of food caches with memo ry of the consequences of devaluation.