 Novel-object test

A novel-object test measures an animal's response to an unfamiliar object under a specified procedure. In studies of neophobia, the object can be placed near familiar food, and the observer records approach, whether feeding occurs, or feeding latency. Keeping the food familiar helps distinguish response to the object from response to an unfamiliar food itself.

One controlled comparison used Bengalese finches and white-rumped munias. All groups fed in control conditions. With novel objects present, six of seven finch groups and none of six munia groups fed during the observation period.^[ref] This measures a difference in the task response; it does not uniquely identify its inherited or developmental cause.

For an original illustrative design, compare a bird's first feeding time with familiar food alone against its first feeding time when an unfamiliar object is added nearby. Define the start of each trial and the maximum observation time beforehand. Recording both approach and actual feeding can distinguish a bird that investigates without eating from one that never approaches.

Prior exposure can make an object familiar through habituation, and a companion's behavior can affect the result. Thus object identity, trial sequence and social group size belong in the procedure, alongside the numerical outcome. A novel-object test is an operational measurement, rather than a direct reading of subjective fear.