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Constructing Culture in Cowbirds (Molothrus ater)
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Constructing Culture in Cowbirds (Molothrus ater)

David J White, Julie Gros-Louis, Andrew P King, Maral A Papakhian and Meredith J West
Journal of comparative psychology (1983), Vol.121(2), pp.113-122
05/2007
DOI: 10.1037/0735-7036.121.2.113
PMID: 17516790
url
https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.121.2.113View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

In past work, the authors produced divergent patterns of courtship and communication in juvenile male cowbirds ( Molothrus ater ) by providing them with different social experiences during their 1st year. Here the authors determined whether these different social patterns could be transmitted to new generations of juvenile males. In Experiment 1, the authors exposed groups of juveniles to adult males who differed in the amount of male-male competition they produced. In Experiment 2, they gave groups of juveniles either social access to adult males or only visual and acoustic access to those males. In both experiments, juvenile males developed patterns of courtship and competition similar to those expressed by the adult males with whom they had social contact. The juveniles never had the opportunity to observe some of the adults' behaviors that they came to replicate. This suggests that the role of the adults was to establish the social structure in the groups, modifying juveniles' early social interactions. Juveniles were then "cultured" within these different learning environments, constructing social behavior similar to the adult males' behavior in their 1st year.
cowbirds communication cultural transmission

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