4.3. Learning and communication. Imitation in animals

The role of imitation in the formation of behavior in higher animals is difficult to overestimate. The phenomenon of imitation does not always relate to the process of learning, it can also belong to instinctive behavior. An example of such imitation can serve as allelomimetic behavior (mutual stimulation), when the performance of actions (species-specific) by some animals induces others to perform the same actions (for example, the simultaneous collection of food). In this case, a certain kind of action inherent in all individuals of the species is encouraged.

Learning by imitation was called "imitational learning." The essence of this process is that in an animal, new forms of behavior are individually formed by direct perception of the actions of other animals. In other words, the basis of such learning is communication with other individuals. Imitation learning can be divided into obligate and optional.

In the process of obligatory imitational learning, its result completely fits into the framework of a specific stereotype. By imitation individuals learn to perform vital actions. All these actions are inherent in the usual behavioral "repertoire" of the species. Obligatory learning is most characteristic of young animals. An example is the formation of a protective response to a predator in the form of flight in young stock of schooling fish. At the same time, they imitate the behavior of adult fish, for example, when they see the predator eating other members of the pack. According to L.A. Orbeli, such imitative behavior is extremely important, “it serves as the main guardian of the species, because a huge advantage is that viewers who are present during the act of damaging a member of their own herd or their community, produce reflex protective acts and thus can avoid danger in the future” . ^[14]

Obligatory imitational learning also serves as an important element of the reaction of following and recognizing mammals of food objects by young. Young individuals of such animals as birds and apes (chimpanzees) acquire, through obligatory imitational learning, experience in nesting.

The simplest facultative imitational learning is manifested in the imitation of movements that are not inherent in this species. In this case, imitation occurs on the basis of allelomimetic stimulation. For example, when maintaining apes in conditions where animals can constantly contact with people, monkeys begin to perform various actions with household items, imitating the actions of man. This behavior will no longer be type-specific: new methods of manipulative activity are being formed. Such actions are called "invisible imitation manipulation."

With optional simulation learning, the solution of problems occurs in a more complex form. One animal performs certain actions to solve the problem, the other (the animal-viewer) only observes its actions, and the skill is developed during its observation. The ability for such learning has been noted in various mammals: rats, dogs, cats, lower and apes, but it plays a particularly important role in the latter. Based on observations in nature by AD. Slonim concluded that the formation of conditioned reflexes in a monkey herd occurs mainly on the basis of imitation.

But not all skills can be developed in animals through optional imitational learning. In this way, instrumental skills are not formed. This is confirmed by the experiments of the American researcher B. B. Beck. In his experiments, baboons were used, who observed the use of tools by their relatives in solving problems. The spectator baboons did not acquire instrumental skills, but they were more often and more intense than before these experiments, they performed manipulations with instruments, which they observed when using. This example proves that in the development of complex skills in terms of communication, an important role is played by allelomimetic behavior and invisible imitation manipulation.

Imitation also captures the field of signaling and communication. An example is the echo sound of birds. In this case, the stimulation of the visually typical acoustic signaling occurs (for example, such phenomena as the “chorus” of birds). The imitation of birds to other people's sounds and songs can be defined as an invisible imitation manipulation. The mastering by chicks of typical sounds by imitating the singing of adults belongs to obligate imitational learning.

Two fundamentally different approaches can be applied to the study of imitation in animals.

1. When studying amelomimetic behavior, animals are isolated from each other and are trained separately, only then they are brought together. Animals can be trained to respond to the same signal in different ways, while achieving the opposite reaction. After the animals are brought together and this signal is presented to them, it is possible to find out what prevails in this group of animals: mutual stimulation or the results of the usual learning of each animal. The results will allow to judge the strength of the allele reaction in these animals, i.e., the strength of imitation.

2. If imitational learning is studied, communication is provided to animals from the beginning of the experiments. At the same time, one individual (animal actor) is trained by a researcher for certain reinforcement in front of other individuals (animal spectators). One can speak about facultative imitational learning if individuals who have not been trained by the experimenter and have not been given the task of reward, will learn to solve this problem correctly and without their own exercises, based only on observation. For example, when a banana is thrown to monkeys, it is always received by the leader of the pack. However, soon all individuals of the flock begin to gather on a certain signal, although the banana still receives only the leader. Thus, skills are formed in all animals (“spectators”), which helps to solve the problem in the absence of a leader (“actor”).

The phenomenon of imitation in the natural environment is quite closely and difficultly intertwined with the intragroup relations of animals. So, in the communities, in addition to mutual incentives to jointly perform certain actions, there is the opposite factor - the suppression by “dominant” individuals of the actions of other members of the community. For example, in the experiment described above, monkeys were afraid to even approach the installation in which they placed a banana, and even more so did not dare to take it. However, monkeys have special, as if "pacifying", signals. The purpose of these signals is to notify the dominant individual (leader) of the readiness of the rest of the pack only to observe. This feature provides for the implementation of allelomimetic behavior and imitational learning.

Learning at different stages of a behavioral act. Any behavioral response of the animal begins with an internal stimulus (need). This stimulus activates the animal, prompts him to the beginning of an active search activity. The initial phase, the search behavior itself and the final phase are always clearly genetically fixed, but the way in which the animal will reach the final phase of behavior may change. It depends on the process of learning, on how variable the behavior of the animal, to what degree it is capable of correct orientation in a changing environment.

In higher animals, the main means of reaching the final phase of a behavioral act is optional learning. Its success depends on the perfection of the animal's orientation mechanism in space and time. The more perfect this orientation is, the more successful will be the overcoming of the obstacle, that is, the conditions in which the object is given. The perfection of the orienting reactions of an animal directly depends on the level of its mental activity. The most important here are the highest mental functions - intellectual abilities. They give the behavior of the animal flexibility and variability, thereby providing the adaptive capabilities of behavioral responses.