Abstract
Birds are characterized by the rapidity of their ontogenetic development as compared, for example, to mammals. Many of their learning processes, therefore, proceed rather quickly. They are called imprinting or imprinting-like processes. Birds also possess advanced learning and memory capacities in areas such as orientation learning, song learning, food caching, and individual recognition. The occurrence of sensitive phases in bird learning may serve to concentrate learning capacities to periods of optimal learning opportunity. Mechanisms of early learning include hormonal control and a phase-specificity in the neuroanatomical development of certain areas in the brain. Behavioral data on sensitive phases and neuroanatomical data on brain development suggest that the great stability found as a result of imprinting may be due to morphological alterations. After the end of the sensitive phase, morphological plasticity is reduced and environmental stimulation only leads to biochemical or submicroscopical alterations of the nervous tissue. It is argued that the possible “special nature” of imprinting may relate more to the form of information storage than to the mode of acquisition of such information.
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© 1984 Berlin, Heildelberg, New York, Tokyo: Springer-Verlag
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Immelmann, K. (1984). The Natural History of Bird Learning. In: Marler, P., Terrace, H.S. (eds) The Biology of Learning. Dahlem Workshop Reports, vol 29. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70094-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70094-1_12
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