Douglas Spalding Essay

Douglas Spalding was the architect of ethology, the scientific watch of animal conduct. He started his research in the mid 1800s. His studies discounted British empiricist claims that animal skill regarding depth, space perception and sound localization were learned by the animals while they were young. Spalding study of ethology involved the determiner of carriage such as instinct is appearance that is predisposed or shaped by natural selection or innate pre-programmed behavior.To address the British empiricist claim that perceptual abilities did non postulate experience, he conducted an study dealing with instinct. He open a mickle of an egg where chicks, baby chickens, not girls, where about to hatch and just out front their eyes opened, he opened a piece of the egg, and covered the chicks idea with a hood. After removing the hood the chick showed no effects of not being able to see and was able to locate insects to eat, thus covering innate behavior is extremely valuable in animal behavior and not experience.Critical period research is learning that occurs at a specific age or life stage. Critical period is behavior thats developed within a specific time frame. Spalding withheld chicks from the stick for 10 days. The chicks didnt hear or see their mother for x days. Spalding introduced the chicks to the calls of the mother however, the chicks did not recognize their mother. Spalding observation showed at particular stages in life innate behavior is developed with a specific time. Spalding experiments and observations support the claim that animals innate behaviors not experiences is a determiner of behavior.