Does the presence of a conspecific increase or decrease fear? Neophobia and habituation in zebra finches

Neophobia, defined as the fear of novelty, can be exhibited when individuals encounter unfamiliar stimuli in their environment. Neophobia has been shown to both increase and decrease when individuals are with conspecifics. An increase in latency to contact new objects can be explained by the negotiation hypothesis which proposes that individuals in groups will negotiate who will approach novelty first, thereby delaying the first contact. This negotiation process could co-occur with and mask a potential effect of risk dilution, where individuals in groups should approach novel objects faster due to lower perceived risk in a social than non-social context. Here, we aim to test the risk dilution hypothesis using an experimental set-up that precluded negotiation among group members by physically separating dyads during social trials. We presented zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) with different novel objects in both social and non-social contexts. We also repeated the presentation of each...新物恐惧（Neophobia）被定义为对新奇事物的恐惧，当个体在所处环境中遭遇陌生刺激时，即会表现出该行为。研究表明，当个体与同种个体共处时，新物恐惧的程度可出现双向变化，既可能增强，亦可能减弱。个体接触新物体的潜伏期延长这一现象，可通过协商假说（Negotiation Hypothesis）得到解释：该假说提出，群体中的个体会通过协商确定率先接触新奇事物的个体，进而推迟首次接触的时间。这一协商过程可能与风险稀释（risk dilution）效应共存并掩盖其潜在影响——群体中的个体本应因社交环境下感知到的风险低于非社交环境，而更快地趋近新奇物体。本研究旨在通过特定实验范式检验风险稀释假说：该范式在社交测试环节中，通过物理分隔成对个体，排除了群体成员间的协商行为。我们在社交与非社交两种环境下，向斑胸草雀（Taeniopygia guttata）呈现不同的新奇物体，并对每一次...