Animals often avoid novel objects, a behavior known as neophobia. We examined behavioral responses of captive European starlings to novel objects placed at their food dishes. Exposure occurred concurrently to food reintroduction following overnight fasting. Behavior was analyzed for 10 min via video recording. We expected an increase in avoidance behavior compared with trials in which food was reintroduced without a novel object. Seven of 10 novel objects increased latency to approach the dish. In contrast to our expectations, neither prior restraint nor exogenous corticosterone changed the neophobic response to novel objects. While exposure to a novel object increased approach latency, there was no additional effect of restraining animals in a cloth bag for 15 min before food reintroduction. Furthermore, the subcutaneous injection of corticosterone did not affect approach latency by itself, nor did it affect the response to a novel object. Finally, we expected repeated exposure to the same object to extinguishing the neophobic response, and that restraint stress would prevent habituation. Our results show that European starlings habituate rapidly to exposure to a novel object, as approach latency returned to baseline within three repeated exposures to the same object. When the repeated presentation of the object was combined with prior restraint, however, the latency to approach never returned to baseline. These results reveal that neophobia in starlings is object‐specific and that, while neither acute stress nor corticosterone directly affects the behavioral response to a novel object, acute stress appears to have a permissive effect on neophobia by inhibiting habituation.

中文翻译：

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先前的束缚压力可以抑制欧洲八哥（Sturnus vulgaris）对新物体的习惯。

动物通常会避开新颖物体，这种行为被称为新恐惧症。我们研究了圈养的欧洲八哥对摆在他们食物盘子上的新物体的行为反应。禁食过夜后，食物重新摄入同时发生。通过视频记录分析行为10分钟。与没有新物体重新引入食物的试验相比，我们预期回避行为会增加。10个新颖物体中的7个增加了接近盘子的等待时间。与我们的预期相反，事先的约束和外源性皮质酮都不能改变对新物体的新恐惧反应。虽然接触新物体会增加进场等待时间，但在重新引入食物之前，没有将动物约束在布袋中保持15分钟的额外作用。此外，皮下注射皮质酮本身不会影响进近潜伏期，也不会影响对新物体的反应。最后，我们期望反复接触同一物体以消除新恐惧症反应，而克制压力可以防止习惯化。我们的结果表明，欧洲star鸟迅速习惯于接触新物体，因为进近潜伏期在对同一物体的三次重复接触中返回到基线。但是，当对象的重复呈现与先前的约束相结合时，接近的等待时间永远不会回到基线。这些结果表明，八哥的新恐惧症是特定于对象的，尽管急性应激和皮质酮都不会直接影响对新对象的行为反应，