From Biological Constraints to Flexible Behavior Systems:Extending Our Knowledge of Sexual Conditioning in Japanese Quail

Abstract

The traditional learning view involves the general process theory of learning that focuses on identifying universal principles that apply to all species capable of learning from experience, and that operate across a wide variety of situations. Examples of behavior that contradict general-process conceptions of learning have been in the past referred to as “biological constraints”. Traditional learning theorists choose to consider these examples as exceptions to otherwise universal principles of learning. On the contrary, the typical ethologist is more likely to be concerned with how specific behaviors may have evolved and in an animal’s species typical responses to stimuli they are likely to encounter in their natural environment. However, they also fail to embrace animal learning phenomena that occurs in the laboratory into their theoretical framework. Behavior systems represent an alternative to this view by providing a link between traditional views of learning and ethology. They conceptualize experiential learning not as a set of universal principles, butas species typical processes that reflect the specific demands of the ecological niche in which the species evolved. The current paper reviews and brings-to-date Domjan’s formulation of a sexual behavior system in male Japanese quail. The system includes a stimulus dimension consisting of species typical cues, local cues, and contextual cues, and a response dimension consisting of general search, focal search, and copulatory behavior. Domjan’sformulation includes two diagrams that include symbols that represent unconditioned and conditioned effects within the system. Our modification of the system focuses on additional and up-to-date conditioned effects. In general, adding conditioning to the system increases potential stimulus and response variation, thereby increasing the flexibility of the system as it has evolved as a result of continued observation and experimentation.