| RefNo | EC/1983/02 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XXI, 90 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Bateson, Paul Patrick Gordon: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1979 |
| Description | Citaton typed |
| Citation | Distinguished for his analysis of 'imprinting', whereby many birds restrict their social preferences to a particular object. By experiments remarkable for their originality, conceptual clarity and rigour he has shown how imprinting relates to other learning processes and how its characteristics depend on the special circumstances of its occurrence early in the life cycle. He has shown further how non-specific experience can accelerate the sensitive period for imprinting, and how specific experience terminates it. His work demonstrates that birds play an active role in imprinting and acquire increasing knowledge about objects by seeking out slightly different versions of objects they have previously seen, At a different level his recent studies suggest that the role of imprinting in determining sexual preferences is to promote an optimal degree of outbreeding. He is now the world authority in this area, and his work has led to new general principles concerning behavioural development. By successfully controlling for the innumberable side-effects of learning, he has played a central role in a major collaborative programme to understand the neural basis of memory. A particular brain region of the chick (medial hyperstriatum ventrale) has been linked to the learning process, thus making possible a detailed study of mechanism. Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London 1976. President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour 1977-80. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA2071 | Bateson; Sir; Paul Patrick Gordon (1938 - 2017) | 1938 - 2017 |