DO CONTINGENCIES WITH TUTOR BEHAVIOR INFLUENCE SONG LEARNING IN ZEBRAFINCHES

Social interaction with a song tutor is often found to be important fo r the song learning process in songbirds, but the mechanism is still u nclear. The main aim of this study is to find indications for continge ncies between singing and interactive behaviours, between and within t utors and tutees, which might influence the song learning process of z ebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). To this end we observed the intera ctions of eleven juvenile zebra finch males with their fathers (the tu tors) and their mothers during the sensitive phase for song learning, and examined four different types of possible contingencies. The evide nce for these contingencies was not very strong: (1) We found some wea l; indications that a tutee can anticipate tutor song by preceding tut or behaviour. There were no indications that (2) tutor song is conting ent upon subsequent behaviour of the tutor, that (3) juvenile males ca n control singing of their tutor by preceding operant social behaviour , or that (4) social behaviour of the tutor reinforces singing of the tutee. We found some indications that the juvenile males attend active ly to the tutor song. Furthermore, we found that the juvenile males ma intained more mutual interactions with their father than with their mo ther. In general, we did not find any clear relationship between aspec ts of social interaction and song copying in zebra finches.