From Biological Constraints to Flexible Behavior Systems: Extending Our Knowledge of Sexual Conditioning in Male Japanese Quail

The traditional learning view involves the general process theory of learning that focuses onidentifying universal principles that apply to all species capable of learning from experience, and that operate across a wide variety of situations. Examples of behavior that contradictgeneralprocess conceptions of learning have been in the past referred to as “biologicalconstraints”. Traditional learning theorists choose to consider these examplesas exceptions to otherwise universal principles of learning. On the contrary, thetypical ethologist is more likely to be concerned with how specific behaviorsmay have evolved and in an animal’s species typical responses to stimuli theyare likely to encounter in their natural environment. However, they also fail to embrace animallearning phenomena that occurs in the laboratory into their theoreticalframework.