Problems and Approaches in the Comparative Psychology of Learning

Comparative psychnlogy nriginated during the 1 9th Ceetury because of the influence nf evnlutionary thenry and ita application to the human species. It was the provide the support of nne nf Darwin’s central hypothesis: Psycholngical continuity between species. After a period of rapid development, it concentrated in few species, an almost exclusive use nf laboratory situatinns as analytical tenIs, an emphasis en proximal causes, and the exclusive influence nf associationism in animal learning theory. During the sixties, comparative psychology was criticized en two grounds: 1> that the traditional anagenetic basis of comparative research had no basis in evolutionary biolngy; 2> that traditional principies of learning were not general (e.g., acquired feod aversions in rodents; song-learning in birds). A critical review of beth issues a presented; the cnnclusion a that both fundamental approaches (anagenesis and cladogenesis) te the comparative study of learning point te relatively independent problems and are, therefore, complementary rather than cempeting approaches.