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List of contents
PART I • SOCIAL LEARNING: THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES 1 • IMITATION IN ANIMALS: HISTORY, DEFINITION, AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA FROM THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORY 2 • AN EVOLUTIONARY MODEL OF SOCIAL LEARNING: THE EFFECTS OF SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATON PART II • SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON AVOIDANCE LEARNING 3 • SOCIAL LEARNING AND THE ACQUISITION OF SNAKE FEAR IN MONKEYS 4 • CULTURAL TRANSMISSION OF ENEMY RECOGNITION BY BIRDS 5 • DIRECT AND OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING BY RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS (AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS): THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPLEX VISUAL STIMULI PART III • SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON FORAGING AND FEEDING 6 • COMMUNICATION OF INFORMATION CONCERNING DISTANT DIETS IN A SOCIAL, CENTRAL-PLACE FORAGING SPECIES: RATTUS NORVEGICUS 7 • MECHANISMS, ECOLOGY, AND POPULATION DIFFUSION OF SOCIALLY-LEARNED, FOOD-FINDING BEHAVIOR IN FERAL PIGEONS 8 • SOCIAL LEARNING ABOUT FOOD BY HUMANS PART IV • SOCIAL LEARNING OF ARBITRARY RESPONSES 9 • EXPERIMENTALLY MANIPULATED IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR IN RATS AND PIGEONS 10 • LEARNING IN THE RAT OF A CHOICE RESPONSE BY OBSERVATION OF S-S CONTINGENCIES 11 • LEARNED IMITATION BY PIGEONS 12 • CULTURE AND GENETICS IN THE HOUSE MOUSE PART V • SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON COMMUNICATION 13 • THE ROLE OF SOCIAL FACTORS IN WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW SONG DEVELOPMENT 14 • THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL INTERACTION AND OBSERVATION IN THE ACQUISITION OF COMMUNICATVE COMPETENCE: POSSIBLE PARALLELS BETWEEN AVIAN AND HUMAN LEARNING 15 • INFANTS IMITATION OF NOVEL AND FAMILIAR BEHAVIORS 16 • THE HUMAN INFANT AS “HOMO IMITANS”.
About the author
Thomas R. Zentall UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY Bennett G. Galef, Jr. MCMASTER UNIVERSITY
Summary
First published in 1988. During the past decade there has been a marked increase in the number of North American and European laboratories engaged in the study of social learning. As a consequence, evidence is rapidly accumulating that in animals, as in humans, social interaction plays an important role in facilitating development of adaptive patterns of behavior. Experimenters are isolated both by the phenomena they study and by the species with which they work. The process of creating a coherent field out of the diversity of current social learning research is likely to be both long and difficult. It the authors’ hope, that the present volume may prove a useful first step in bringing order to a diverse field.
