Trial-and-error copying of demonstrated actions reveals how fledglings learn to 'imitate' their mothers.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how humans and other animals learn to perform an act from seeing it done has been a major challenge in the study of social learning. To determine whether this ability is based on 'true imitation', many studies have applied the two-action experimental paradigm, examining whether subjects learn to perform the specific action demonstrated to them. Here, we show that the insights gained from animals' success in two-action experiments may be limited, and that a better understanding is achieved by monitoring subjects' entire behavioural repertoire. Hand-reared house sparrows that followed a model of a mother demonstrator were successful in learning to find seeds hidden under a leaf, using the action demonstrated by the mother (either pushing the leaf or pecking it). However, they a

SUBMITTER: Truskanov N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5326535 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature