Date of Award

1973

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Zoology

Department

Zoology

First Advisor

Frank Heppner

Abstract

Startle response times of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) to auditory and visual stimuli have been determined. Birds were placed into an anechoic chamber and exposed to either a one msec flash of unfiltered white light, or a three msec pure tone burst. An electronic detection system for monitoring and recording the activity of the birds was designed and used for the experiments. Display modes of the recording apparatus allowed for an accuracy to I0-4 seconds in measuring reaction times. The mean reaction time of birds to light stimuli was 76.38 msec ± 15.32 msec. The mean reaction time to sound stimuli was 80.64 msec + 14.40 msec.

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