出生前听觉刺激可影响鸟类听觉偏好的发展，如出生前的某一音乐刺激可能会引起出生后对这一特定音乐的听觉偏好。本研究采用T迷宫对家养鸡进行“同时听觉选择测验”以证明这一效应，并比较接受过和未接受过出生前音乐旋律刺激的雏鸡对中西方风格的旋律、歌曲和语言刺激的偏好差异，以探究出生前建立的听觉偏好的迁移效应。结果表明，相比对照组，实验组的雏鸡出生后对出生前听过的旋律有显著的偏好，但在相似的歌曲刺激选择中未发现相似的差异。语言选择测试中，实验组的雏鸡总体上倾向于英语而不是汉语，但对英语的偏好与测验年龄呈负相关。此外，雏鸡的唤醒水平在歌曲刺激中最高，在旋律刺激中最低。实验组的孵化率较高，但这一效果有待进一步检验。综上所述，中国风格的出生前音乐旋律刺激可以导致雏鸡产生对这一特定旋律的偏好，但这一偏好不能迁移到与之类似的歌曲上。这种实验操作也会使雏鸡产生对英语的不稳定偏好，但随着年龄的增长，这种偏好会逐渐逆转。本研究表明，与鸟类天性无关的听觉偏好也可能受到出生前经验的影响，但不能根据文化风格进行迁移，说明家养鸡的出生前听觉学习和出生后辨别的能力虽然较为高级，但仍然是有限的。本研究可提高母亲们对怀孕期间听觉环境的关注，并提示人们出生前的经历可能是我们对许多事情偏好的来源。

Prenatal auditory stimulation can affect the development of auditory preference in birds. In particular, prenatal music may cause postnatal auditory preference for the specific stimulation. Present study examined this effect as well as the transfer of preference in domestic chicks by using T-maze simultaneous auditory choice tests and comparing the effects of melody, song and language stimulations in Chinese and western styles. Result showed a significant difference in preference for the original prenatal melody between the experimental group and the control group, but not found in song. Chicks in the experimental group preferred English to Chinese generally but the correlation between preference for English and testing age was negatively significant. Moreover, chick’s arousal level was highest in song stimulation and lowest in melody. Additionally, the hatchability of the experimental group was higher, although this effect needs further examination. In conclusion, prenatal melody in Chinese style can produce a preference for the specific melody, but it cannot transfer to similar songs. And the manipulation can produce an unstable preference for English to Chinese, but it gradually reverses as age increases. Present study showed that the auditory preferences unrelated to bird’s nature can also be influenced by prenatal experience but cannot transfer according to cultural style, indicating that newborn chick’s abilities of prenatal learning and postnatal discrimination are kind of advanced but still limited. Present study shall raise mothers’ concern with the auditory environment in pregnancy and inspire people that our prenatal experience may be a source of our preference for many things.