S03.Summary: Social interaction and information processing: An integrative approach to avian vocal learning

Irene M. Pepperberg¹ & Dietmar Todt²

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA, e-mail imp@biosci.arizona.edu, ²Freie Universitat Berlin, D-12163 Berlin, Germany, e-mail todt@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Pepperberg, I.M. & Todt, D. 1999. Social interaction and information processing: An integrative approach to avian vocal learning. In: Adams, N.J. & Slotow, R.H. (eds) Proc. 22 Int. Ornithol. Congr., Durban: 137. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.

We have convened this symposium to present data that suggest that the so-called cognitive revolution that has changed the study of human behaviour can be applied to the study of avian vocal learning. Both birds and humans are faced with complex and sometimes contradictory input that must be evaluated properly during periods when learning occurs; earlier simplistic models can no longer explain the many phenomena seen in nature and in the laboratory. We believe that this symposium will serve as a valuable introduction to the use of an information processing approach to analysing avian behaviour.