W. H. Thorpe studied how birds acquire song. His experiments on hand-reared chaffinches varied their auditory experience and compared later songs, including exposure to artificial tutoring patterns. The design distinguished what develops without normal song exposure from what is shaped by hearing an appropriate model.[ref]
The illuminating point is that an orderly adult behavior need not be either wholly learned or wholly independent of experience. Controlled exposure can reveal constraints on learning while also showing that the final pattern depends on the sounds encountered.

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