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Imitative learning in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) using the two-action method.

Author
Abstract
:

The study of imitative learning in animals has suffered from the presence of a number of confounding motivational and attentional factors (e.g., social facilitation and stimulus enhancement). The two-action method avoids these problems by exposing observers to demonstrators performing a response (e.g., operating a treadle) using 1 of 2 distinctive topographies (e.g., by pecking or by stepping). Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) observers exposed to conspecific demonstrators showed a high correlation between the topography of the response they observed and the response they performed. These data provide strong evidence for the existence of true imitative learning in an active, precocious bird under conditions that control for alternative accounts.

Year of Publication
:
1996
Journal
:
Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983)
Volume
:
110
Issue
:
3
Number of Pages
:
316-20
ISSN Number
:
0735-7036
URL
:
http://content.apa.org/journals/com/110/3/316
DOI
:
10.1037/0735-7036.110.3.316
Short Title
:
J Comp Psychol
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