In white-crowned sparrows, social experience exhibits a very strong influence over the development of singing patterns. What observation led to this conclusion? a. Birds learned to sing only when they were trained by other birds. b. The window in which birds learn from other birds is wider than that in which birds learn from tape recordings. c. Birds could learn different dialects only from other birds. d. Birds that learned to sing from a tape recorder could change their song when they listened to another bird.
Added by Juan Antonio C.
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Option a suggests that birds only learn to sing when trained by other birds, but this does not necessarily indicate the influence of social experience. Option b suggests that the window for learning from other birds is wider than that for learning from tape Show more…
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Male white-crowned sparrows must learn to sing a particular dialect of the full song of their species. But this fact does not mean that genetic information present in the cells of white-crowned sparrows is irrelevant for the development of the bird's singing behavior. Why not? In this regard, remember that white-crown males can learn their species' song far more easily than the song of, say, the white-throated sparrow. What about the finding that white-crown males that hear white-crown song only during a 40 -day period early in life can nevertheless generate a complete song. although they do not start singing themselves for several months after their early exposure to a tutor's song?
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