How Newborn Animals Use Soft Preferences to Survive

Newborn animals frequently make vital decisions only hours after they are born or hatch. Chicks trail their mothers, while turtle hatchlings head towards safer places almost at once, well before experience or learning can influence them.

New findings indicate that these initial decisions do not come from inflexible instincts or blank minds. Rather, young animals use a subtle network of inbuilt yet adaptable preferences that jointly direct their behaviour.

A study headed by researchers at Queen Mary University of London explains how the combination of numerous faint signals enables newborns to behave accurately in an uncertain world.

Newborn animals act almost immediately

Certain animals start to move about and investigate their surroundings within hours of birth or hatching. Scientists describe these species as precocial.

This category includes chicks, ducklings, turtle hatchlings and many grazing mammals. Because threats emerge early, their survival relies on making quick, accurate decisions.

Earlier scientific thinking proposed that newborn minds were empty at the start of life. Research across many species now supports a different view.

Newborn animals are born with several inbuilt preferences. Individually, each is weak and adaptable, but together they steer behaviour in useful directions.

Soft preferences guide choices

Traditional studies of animal behaviour concentrated on powerful instincts, including automatic responses to escape danger or mate.

Although strong instincts are useful in emergencies, they may lead to errors when circumstances alter. Recent research instead draws attention to another form of bias: early predispositions.

Rather than acting as fixed instructions, early predispositions function as soft preferences. A chick might be mildly attracted to particular colours, show gentle interest in upward movement or respond slightly to sound.

No individual signal compels a response. Preferences differ between individuals and commonly diminish after the earliest stage of life.

This softness has a benefit. Faint signals limit false alarms. Rather than responding to one deceptive cue, newborn animals wait until several signs correspond.

Rare features reduce confusion

The study finds that many early preferences centre on characteristics that are uncommon in natural environments. Red and blue colours are seldom found in soil or vegetation.

Movement upwards against gravity generally indicates living creatures. Biological motion likewise stands out from inanimate objects.

Unusual characteristics convey substantial meaning. Being drawn to rare cues makes confusion less likely: a random object is unlikely to display several rare features simultaneously, whereas a parent animal often displays many.

Combining many small clues

The paper's central idea is combination. Young animals process multiple weak preferences together, with colour, size, movement, shape and sound each providing information.

A mother hen, for instance, often has reddish colouring, a large body, upward movement and changing speed. Any one of these cues on its own remains uncertain.

Together, however, the signals provide strong evidence. When cues occur jointly across separate senses, coincidence becomes improbable.

Researchers call this kind of processing a self-supervised strategy. It involves neither teaching nor feedback; instead, the brain draws on the structure of the environment itself.

Signals reinforce each other

The paper presents a mathematical model showing how cues can be combined. In one method, signals are added together.

Every cue makes a small contribution towards a decision. Additive processing is most effective in uncomplicated surroundings with few distractions.

The second method involves synergy, in which cues strengthen one another. Signals from distinct senses, such as sight and sound, raise confidence far more than signals originating from a single sense.

Cues that are independent seldom coincide by accident. Synergy therefore preserves accuracy even where the environment is noisy.

Experiments indicate that synergy is especially important in early life. Chicks are more strongly attracted when colour and movement are presented together, while pairing sound with motion improves accuracy further.

Avoiding early false alarms

At first, weak biases can appear inefficient, and powerful instincts may seem more secure. Yet strong instincts respond even to partial matches, whereas weak biases require confirmation.

This arrangement shields young animals from expensive mistakes. Early-life environments are full of misleading objects, and waiting for several matching cues prevents unnecessary energy expenditure and danger.

Its flexibility also leaves room for later learning. Early predispositions direct attention to valuable targets, after which learning processes such as imprinting reinforce connections with parents or food sources.

From newborn animals to machines

Results from animal research also affect human science. Human infants display comparable early preferences for faces and biological motion. Developmental psychology gains from examining how decision-making begins before learning.

Artificial intelligence faces similar difficulties when available training data are limited. Contemporary systems commonly require vast numbers of examples.

Biological strategies point to a different possibility. Machines might operate with less training by using weak inbuilt preferences and combining cues.

Subtle choices help newborns survive

“Reviewing the literature on inexperienced animals helped to identify an underlying reason for why animals exhibit ‘soft’ preferences,” said study co-author Elisabetta Versace, a senior lecturer in psychology at Queen Mary University of London.

Weak preferences may initially appear ineffective in early life, when strong instincts seem safer and faster to use. Yet the research outlined in the study suggests that the opposite is true.

The authors note that transient, weak preferences can lower false alarms in decision-making, enabling animals to assess several environmental cues instead of responding too rigidly to one signal.

The uncertainty of early life

By modelling this effect, the researchers could also reinterpret over a century of experimental research.

Results that previously appeared scattered or inconsistent now look like partial evidence explaining how organisms deal with the uncertainty of early life.

In future, the model provides clear predictions for testing in animals and machines alike.

Examining how early intelligence functions shows that unexpectedly complex behaviour can arise from simple rules. Even at birth, life may already possess a quiet form of wisdom.