Hunter's Mark Hauber Publishes New Findings on Habituation Learning

New research by Mark E. Hauber, a professor in Hunter’s Department of Psychology, marks the first discovery of embryonic learning outside humans, as spotlighted in Science magazine. The findings, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, focus on embryos of the superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus), an Australian songbird. Even before hatching, the birds’ brains were discovered to be engaged in tasks requiring attention, learning, and possibly memory. Habituation learning had previously been found only in human embryos. In addition to the research article, titled “Prenatal Learning in an Australian Songbird: Habituation and Individual Discrimination in Superb Fairy-Wren Embryos,” Hauber recently published The Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World’s Bird Species (University of Chicago Press, 2014).