The view that filial imprinting might serve as a useful model system for studying the neurobiological basis of memory was inspired, at least in part, by a simple idea: acquired filial preferences reflect the formation of a memory or representation of the imprinting object itself, as opposed to the change in the efficacy of stimulus-response pathways, for example. We provide a synthesis of the evidence that supports this idea; and show that the processes of memory formation observed in filial imprinting find surprisingly close counterparts in other species, including our own.
Keywords: Filial imprinting; Learning; Representation.
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