RUI: Learning and Development

9222891 Balsam这个研究项目的目的是开发一个模型系统来分析学习在行为发展中的作用。在发展过程中，经验可以影响控制行为表达的所有因素以及反应本身的形式。例如，在许多物种中，指导摄食行为的因素在发育过程中发生了变化。许多幼小动物的饮食环境与同类的成年动物截然不同。此外，在许多物种中，喂养反应的形式发生了变化，因为当年轻的哺乳动物从哺乳到独立喂养时。在这两种变化中，经验都起着重要的作用。Drs。Balsam和Deich试图通过使用学习和记忆的原理来分析特定的发展转变，来理解在发展过程中发生的变化。他们研究这些过程的模型系统正处于环鸽从依赖进食到独立进食的过渡阶段。将描述投料控制的转变和投料响应形式的变化，并分析这些转变背后的过程。除了澄清学习在发展中的作用外，这些研究将有助于研究归纳和维持新的反应形式的一般方法和理论。

9222891 Balsam The aim of this research project is to develop a model system for the analysis of the role of learning in behavioral development. During development, experience can affect all of the factors that control the expression of behavior as well as the form of the response itself. For example, in many species the factors that guide feeding behavior change during development. Many young animals eat under very different circumstances than do the adults of that species. Additionally, in many species the form of the feeding response changes, as when young mammals go from suckling to independent feeding. In both of kinds of changes, experience plays an important role. Drs. Balsam and Deich are attempting to understand changes that occur over the course of development by using principles of learning and memory to analyze specific developmental transitions. The model system in which they study these processes is in the transition from dependent to independent feeding in ring doves. Both the transitions in controls of feeding and changes in the form of feeding responses will be described and the processes underlying the transitions will be analyzed. In addition to clarifying the role of learning in development, these studies will contribute to a general methodology and theory for the study of the induction and maintenance of new response forms.