Synthesizing Nature-nurture: Prenatal Roots of Instinctive Behavior

This volume provides a primarily non-technical summary of experimental and theoretical work conducted over the course of 35 years which resulted in a developmental framework capable of integrating causal influences at the genetic, neural, behavioural, and ecological levels of analysis. It describes solutions to the nature-nurture problem at both the empirical and theoretical levels. Following field observations, laboratory experiments led to the discovery of the nonobvious prenatal experiential basis of instinctive behaviour in two species of ducklings - ground-nesting mallards and hole-nesting wood ducklings. This work also describes the experiences that lead to the rigid canalization of behavioural development as well as the social and sensory experiences that favour the continuance of flexibility. The author also describes a developmental psychobiological systems view that supports a behaviourally and psychologically mediated pathway to evolutionary change in humans and other species.