Learning and Development

该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。经验可以影响发展的两个方面。经验可以影响控制特定行为的因素，也可以影响行为本身的形式。例如，在许多物种中，食物的视觉特征直到相对较晚的发育阶段才指导摄食行为。此外，在许多物种中，当年轻的哺乳动物从哺乳到独立喂养时，摄食行为的形式发生了变化。在这两个例子中，经验在带来发展变化方面起着重要作用。长期以来，发展主义者一直承认经验对行为发展的影响具有核心作用，而传统的学习和记忆研究也在心理学中占据了中心地位。然而，很少有一个领域的知识和原则具体应用到另一个领域的具体研究。目前的研究项目通过使用学习和记忆的原理来分析发展转变，探索了综合这些领域的可能性。博士们所使用的模型系统。Balsam和Deich将研究环鸽从依赖到独立进食的过渡过程。将描述控制刺激的转变和摄食行为形式的变化，并分析转变背后的过程。虽然研究刺激控制变化的方法和理论已经在学习领域得到了很好的研究，但人们很少关注如何获得新形式的行为的问题。因此，除了有助于理解学习在发展中的作用之外，这些研究还应该有助于研究新行为形式的诱导和维持的一般方法和理论的发展。

The aim of the project is to develop a model system for the analysis of the role of learning in behavioral development. Experience can affect two aspects of development. Experience can affect which factors come to control a particular behavior and it can influence the form of the behavior itself. For example, in many species visual characteristics of food do not guide feeding behavior until relatively late in development. Additionally, in many species the form of the feeding behavior changes, as when young mammals go from suckling to independent feeding. In both of these examples, experience plays an important role in bringing about the developmental change. Developmentalists have long acknowledged a central role for the effects of experience on behavioral development, and traditional studies of learning and memory have occupied a central place in psychology. Yet, there has been little specific application of knowledge and principles in one domain to specific studies in the other domain. The current research project explores the possibility for synthesis of these areas by using principles of learning and memory to analyze developmental transitions. The model system in which Drs. Balsam and Deich will study these processes is the transition from dependent to independent feeding in ring doves. Both the transitions in controlling stimuli and changes in the form of feeding behavior will be described, and the processes underlying the transitions will be analyzed. While methods and theory for the study of changes in stimulus control have been well worked out in the area of learning, little attention has been given to the problem of how new forms of behavior are acquired. So, in addition to contributing to the understanding the role of learning in development, these studies also should contribute to the development of general methodology and theory for the study of the induction and maintenance of new forms of behavior.