Alyssa Lee

Mr. Ippolito

Current Event #15

2/4/18

Glaser, Linda. “Psychologists Solve Mystery of Songbird Learning.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 31 Jan. 2019, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190131125921.htm.

Scientists and researchers have long used animal behavior as a template for understanding how human behavior and their corresponding cognitive pathways function.  Prior to this particular experiment, it was believed that zebra finches learned their song through imitation of their mother or father’s song; however, with the findings derived from this new experiment, this may in fact not be the case at all.  “Psychologists Solve Mystery of Songbird Learning” written by Linda Glaser explores a study performed by Cornell University’s Institute for the Social Sciences on how zebra finches learn their song and what possible implications this could have on examining human behavior.  The leading researchers, Michael Goldstein and Samantha Carouso-Peck, set up an experiment to test what factors influenced the development of successful birdsong. They took nine pairs of zebra finch brothers, whom had been raised and nursed by the same parents for 35 days, and split them into two groups after they had reached the age where they would begin to produce song: the “contingent” and “yoked” groups.  In the “contingent” group, the zebra finches were exposed to a video of an adult female zebra finch “fluffing up”, a certain type of arousal behavior exhibited by female finches, each time they performed the song to match their father’s original song. In the “yoked” group, finches were shown the same video, but at random times unrelated to the success of their song. The results were conclusive. At the end of the experiment, Goldstein and Carouso-Peck compared the finches’ songs to their original father’s.  The “contingent” finches learned songs that were “significantly more accurate” than their “yoked” counterparts (i.e., the “contingent” group’s songs closely resembled their father’s song). This suggested that zebra finch males learn their courtship songs through social learning and the “carrot and stick” method from their mothers rather than through pure imitation; the mother raises her young to perform the song to her liking in order to increase reproductive success. As Goldstein comments, “Had the traditional model of song learning as pure imitation been correct, both birds would have learned the same song, because they had the same opportunity to memorize it early and practice it.”  The reasoning behind this behavior could be related to the fact that the purpose of their song is to attract mates rather than to defend territory. Thus, it would increase “fitness” and chance of survival for zebra finches to raise their young in this way. Ultimately, what Goldstein and Carouso-Peck took away from their experiment was that by studying animals in isolation (as is most commonplace in laboratory and social science/cognitive experiments) we miss many key components of behavior that could enable us to explain a number of the choices that organisms make- be them choices made by finch or human.

The results of this experiment have plenty of implications on the examination of human behavior.  Just as zebra finches learn their song from their mother’s response to said song, this may also suggest that human children also learn certain behaviors from their parents reactions rather than mere imitation.  It also makes the case for a greater number of behavioral studies into social learning rather than isolated experimentation; examining human interaction could provide much more insight into cognitive function than experiments performed on individuals (though this is not to say that the latter are unimportant; they are simply performed far more frequently than social experiments performed on groups of human beings).  The information gleaned from this experiment could also be used to study vocal learning and learning disabilities in children diagnosed with “Parkinson’s disease, autism, stuttering and genetic disorders of speech.” By examining the effect of parental guidance on behavioral development in young children, we could potentially develop methods to ameliorate the condition of those suffering from these disorders from their youth.  It opens up the avenue for exploration into how behavior can be affected by environmental factors rather than genetic ones, something that is becoming increasingly more relevant in light of the moral debate of genetic modification and how it should be used. This would not only advance the findings and knowledge of scientific community as well as our understanding of these illnesses, but it would also largely improve the ways of life of these individuals and lead them to pursue healthier, and ultimately happier, lives.

I especially enjoyed reading this article; I felt as though it offered much insight into how animal behavior relates to human behavior, and how the two are never mutually exclusive.  It also put this experiment in perspective with the study of evolution and emphasized the implications that the results of this experiment could have on society and the scientific community in general.  I was left with a lasting impression of optimism upon reading it and am excited to see where this finding could take our understanding of human behavior. However, there are also a few areas in which the author could have improved her article; for instance, she could have condensed the information concerning the specifics of the experiment as well as the quotes, as most of it was unnecessary to gaining a complete understanding of the experiment and its implications.  She could have taken out the portion of her article concerning the fast perception of zebra finches due to the fact that it did not add anything in particular to the success of the article. Additionally, Glaser does not provide any possible drawbacks or sources of error of the experiment, nor does she explain why most human experiments have been done in isolation rather than groups, as one would expect most social behavior experiments to be done. She could improve her article in this area by adding this necessary information and performing further research to provide the reader with a better understanding of this experiment as a whole.