Sequence learning in domestic chicks (Gallus gallus).

Sequence learning involves the ability to encode the properties of event sequences, discriminating sequences composed of identical items presented in altered order. These abilities, required for many sophisticate cognitive operations, have been studied in human infants and non human animals. After imprinting on a sequence of arbitrary elements, we tested naïve chicks’ choice between this familiar sequence and a structurally different one, and their ability to generalize the structure of the sequence they have learnt to sequences composed of novel elements. Chicks successfully generalized approaching the novel sequence whose structure resembled that of the imprinting stimulus.