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Photo of a "Magnetic Termite Mound"
My students and I have been studying the role of social learning in development
of adaptive patterns of behaviour in animals as diverse as Norway rats
and Japanese quail. The results of our experiments provide evidence of
an important role for social learning in development of behavioural repertoires.
Such evidence is important because, in the endless arguments over whether
instinct or individual learning guides development of behaviour in adaptive
directions, the possibility that animals might learn what to do as a result
of interaction with more experienced conspecifics was ignored. We have
been kept busy filling the gaps both providing evidence that, for example,
animals can learn where to eat, what to eat, and when to eat from their
fellows, and analyzing behavioural and sensory processes supporting such
social learning.
White, D.J., & Galef, B.G., Jr. (2000). Differences between the sexes in direction and duration of response to seeing a potential sex partner mate with another. Animal Behaviour, 59, 1235-1240.
White, D.J. & Galef, B.G., Jr. (2000). 'Culture' in quail: Social influences on mate choice of female Coturnix japonica, Animal Behaviour, 59, 975-979.
Galef, B.G., Jr. & Whiskin, E.E. (1997). Effects
of social and asocial learning on longevity of food-preference traditions.
Animal Behaviour, 53, 1313-1322.
Galef, B.G., Jr. (1996). Food selection: Problems in understanding
how we choose foods to eat. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews,
20, 67-73.
Galef, B.G., Jr., & Allen, C. (1995). A new model system
for studying animal tradition. Animal Behaviour, 50, 705-717.
Galef, B.G., Jr. (1992). The question of animal culture. Human
Nature, 3: 157-178.
Galef, B.G., Jr. (1991). A contrarian view of the wisdom of the
body as it relates to food selection, Psychological Review, 98:
218-224.
Dr. Galef is a Fellow of the Canadian and American Psychological Associations,
as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and
was founder and, for six years, co-organizer of the Winter Animal Behavior
Conferences. He has served on the Board of Directors of the International
Society for Developmental Psychobiology and Animal Behaviour Society, is
currently North American Editor of Animal Behaviour and serves on the editorial
boards of Appetite; Animal Learning & Behavior; Canadian Journal
of Experimental Psychology; Ethology, Ecology and Evolution; and Evolution
of Communication.
