IMITATIVE LEARNING IN MALE JAPANESE-QUAIL (COTURNIX-JAPONICA) USING THE 2-ACTION METHOD

The study of imitative learning in animals has suffered from the prese nce of a number of confounding motivational and attentional factors (e .g., social facilitation and stimulus enhancement). The two-action met hod avoids these problems by exposing observers to demonstrators perfo rming a response (e.g., operating a treadle) using 1 of 2 distinctive topographies (e.g., by pecking or by stepping). Japanese quail (Coturn ix japonica) observers exposed to conspecific demonstrators showed a h igh correlation between the topography of the response they observed a nd the response they performed. These data provide strong evidence for the existence of true imitative learning in an active, precocious bir d under conditions that control fur alternative accounts.