Predispositions

Living beings come to this world equipped with skills that enable smooth and smart interactions with the environment. For instance, domestic chicks are spontaneously attracted to animate objects or flee away from fast looming stimuli at first sight, and tortoise hatchlings are attracted by face-like stimuli, similarly to what infants do. Other predispositions include specialised mechanisms for learning, such as the rapid affiliative responses developed in filial imprinting. Precocial species (e.g. chicks of the domestic fowl, tortoises) and insects are valuable models to conduct these studies.