[Innate learning abilities].

Abstract

Ethologists working with many species, studying overall behaviour, observing and experimenting in natural milieu, have first realized that animals are learning some things, sometimes complex, more easily than simple ones. It is almost always behaviour having an evident survival value. It is conceivable that during phylogenesis, the pressure of natural selection has developed to a high level the ability to acquire these behaviours, as an "inborn ability to learn". Seligman has proposed to call these reinforced evolutional behaviour as "prepared learnings". These learnings behaviours are present in both humans and animals: like for example feeding aversions which acquisition does not follow the classical laws of conditioning. Starting from these new facts, it is justified to propose a modification of aversive therapy in alcoholics and to reconsider theories concerning learning of certain pathological behaviour, such as phobia.