Adaptative learning ín Snakes and the Ethologícal Aproach

Abstract

Early controversy between ethologists and psychologists over innate and learned be¬havior has gíven way to analysis of ontogeny. Att itnportant area of con tetnporary research sn ontogeny concerns aspects of learning that are adaptive, itt the Darwinian sense. Such research Ls grounded itt descriptive data att the anirnal’s ecology and behavior itt its natu¬ral habitat. To illustrate this ethological approach to learning, we describe how a field and laboratory study of a predator-prey system gaye risc to research att fundamental aspects of learning itt a Mexican snahe— a metnber of a Class of vertebrates virtualiy unhnown to Comparative Psychology,