Imprinting in Animal Behaviour

A RECENT symposium on imprinting 1 focuses attention on a very important aspect of animal behaviour. Although Thorpe 2 and Verplank 3 have emphasized that imprinting should be considered in relation to other types of learning, one aspect which does not appear to have received much consideration is the question of the relevance of imprinting to ideas on the evolution of learning and of instinctive behaviour.