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.
