P. Marler and H. S. Terrace* The Rockefeller University Field Research Center Millbrook, NY 12545 *Dept. of Psychology, Columbia University New York, NY 10027, USA For the first half of this century, theories of animal conditioning were regarded as the most promising approach to the study of learning - both animal and human. For a variety of reasons, disillusionment with this point of view has become widespread during recent years. One prominent source of disenchantment with conditioning theory is a large body of ethological observations of both learned and unlearned natural behavior. These challenge the generality of principles of animal learning as derived from the intensive study of a few species in specialized laboratory situations. From another direction, the complexities of human language acquisition, surely the most impressive of learned achievements, have prompted developmental psychologists to doubt the relevance of principles of animal learning. Even within the realm of traditional studies of animal learning, it has become apparent that no single set of currently available principles can cope with the myriad of new empirical findings. These are emerging at an accelerating rate from studies of such phenomena as selective attention and learning, conditioned food aversion, complex problem­ solving behavior, and the nature of reinforcement. Not very surprisingly, as a reaction against the long-held but essentially unrealized promise of general theories of learning, many psychologists have asked an obvious question: does learning theory have a future? 2 r. Marler and B. S.

Inhalt

General Issues in the Biology of Learning.- Animal Learning, Ethology, and Biological Constraints.- Ethology and the Natural History of Learning.- Genes, Evolution, and Learning.- The Study of Animal Learning in the Tradition of Pavlov and Thorndike.- Learning by Selection.- Biology of Invertebrate Learning.- Learning in Invertebrates.- Natural History of Honey Bee Learning.- Behavior Theory and Invertebrate Learning.- Work in Invertebrates on the Mechanisms Underlying Learning.- Biology of Invertebrate Learning: Group Report.- Biology of Learning in Nonmammalian Vertebrates.- The Natural History of Bird Learning.- Song Learning: Innate Species Differences in the Learning Process.- A Logical Basis for Single-neuron Study of Learning in Complex Neural Systems.- The Neural Basis of Imprinting.- Signals, Conditioned Directed Movements, and Species-typical Response Predispositions in Nonmammalian Vertebrates.- Cause and Function of Animal Learning Processes.- Complex General Process Learning in Nonmammalian Vertebrates.- Biology of Learning in Nonmammalian Vertebrates: Group Report.- Biology of Learning in Nonhuman Mammals.- Natural History and Evolution of Learning in Nonhuman Mammals.- Species-typical Response Predispositions.- Associative Predispositions.- Learning to See: Mechanisms in Experience-dependent Development.- Physiological and Anatomical Mechanisms: Neural Bases of Learning.- Spatial Cognition and Memory in Captive Chimpanzees.- Biology of Learning in Nonhuman Mammals: Group Report.- Biology of Learning in Humans.- Biological Predispositions to Learn Language.- On Perceptual Predispositions for Human Speech and Monkey Vocalizations.- Human Learning and Memory.- Models of Language Acquisition.- Brain Mechanisms of Language.- The Neuropsychology of Memory.- Biology of Learning in Humans: Group Report.- List of Participants with Fields of Research.- Author Index.