Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!hes
From: hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Transfer of Instincts through Genetics
Summary: selective response is not necessarily "learning"
Message-ID: <6542@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 23 Feb 89 03:42:02 GMT
References: <1681@uswat.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: NC State Univ.
Lines: 39

In article <1681@uswat.UUCP>, timw@zeb.USWest.COM writes:
> ... 
> If we agree that an animal is born with certain instinctive 
> characteristics (do we agree on this ?, leave homo sapien out
> of the picture, whole 'nother topic ?), I contend that genetically
> defined information determining these characteristics ABSOLUTELY
> MUST be transferred to the offspring. 

  ok so far - and so far the word "learn" hasn't been used

> Where did this information originate ? I don't think it happened 
> overnight. Some salmonid at some point had to have learned that 
                                                     ^^^^^^^
  ok- here it is - why must it be "learned"?  Let us say that I have
a flock of chickens and go out and catch one now and then for my
dinner.  I usually pick a large slow one, and after a suitable time
we can see that my chicken flock has turned out to be composed 
of smaller fleeter individuals than the original flock.  Would it
be correct to say that the chickens have learned to be smaller and
faster?

> if it didn't swim away from a shadow, it would be Osprey lunch. ...

> So, unless we're talking creationism vs. evolution, instincts are
> (1) learned and 2) passed on (IMVHO). Further, I conclude that,
      ^^^^^^^
  if it is not "learned" then the conclusion won't be about learning.

> [lots deleted about how fast the population will change]
> Tim Walker
> Littleton, Colorado

  The population can change, in response to "selection pressure"
regardless of whether or not we call that "learning".  (In general
I wouldn't call it "learning".)  The speed of
response depends on the selective pressure and the amount of genetic
variation on which the slection can act.

--henry schaffer  n c state univ