Context and Animal Behavior II: The Role of Conspecifics in Species-Typical Perceptual Development Article

Lickliter, R. (1991). Context and Animal Behavior II: The Role of Conspecifics in Species-Typical Perceptual Development . ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 3(1), 11-23. 10.1207/s15326969eco0301_1

cited authors

  • Lickliter, R

authors

abstract

  • The young bird or mammal's natural situation is an inherently social one, in which the animal neonate receives an array of stimulation from its immediate surroundings, especially its parent(s) and sibling(s). Like other aspects of the environment, social companions can be viewed as potential experiential resources for the developing individual, and can play a significant role in the realization of normal behavioral phenotypes. Only recently, however, have researchers begun systematic attempts to detail how the specific experiential requirements of behavioral development are related to the specific features of the usual social environment encountered by developing neonates. This article reviews recent work with precocial avian hatchlings demonstrating the important contribution that social experience with conspecifics can make to the development of species-typical perceptual preferences. Results indicate that surprisingly detailed information about the experiential stimulation present during the course of development is required if an appropriate interpretation to the results of experimental manipulations concerned with understanding that development is to be made. The findings also suggest that, in the evolution of the perceptual skills underlying early species identification, natural selection has acted on the entire developmental system (the organism and its context), and not merely on the organic, organismic, or environmental aspects of that system. Many of the constant characteristics of organisms are due to exposure to constant and uniform conditions rather than heredity. (Brooks, 1883, The Law of Heredity) © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • March 1, 1991

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 11

end page

  • 23

volume

  • 3

issue

  • 1