How Heritable is Innate Behaviour?
- 26 April 2010
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Zeitschrift Fur Tierpsychologie
- Vol. 55 (1), 1-18
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1981.tb01256.x
Abstract
The relations between innateness and heritability of behaviour, environmental heterogeneity, genetic diversity of populations, and rates of evolution of behaviour are discussed on the basis of a simple quantitative model. An index I of innateness is proposed which can be related to the heritability index h2. I and h2 are positively related but the degree of correlation depends on the genetic variability of the population, the heterogeneity of the conditioning environment, and the level of spontaneous behavioural variability. The influence of innateness on rates of evolution is moderate. The frequency distributions of I and h2 are unimodal, there is no evidence for an innate-acquired dichotomy.Keywords
This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- Selection for shuttle avoidance in wildMus musculusBehavior Genetics, 1978
- Selection for agonistic behavior in wild femaleMus musculusBehavior Genetics, 1976
- Water escape learning in mice. III. A diallel studyBehavior Genetics, 1974
- Genetic analyses of nest-building behavior in laboratory mice (Mus musculus)Behavior Genetics, 1973
- Water escape learning in mice. II. Replicated selection for increased learning speedBehavior Genetics, 1973
- Water escape learning in mice. I. Strain differences and biometrical considerationsBehavior Genetics, 1973
- Genetic influences on saccharin preference of micePhysiology & Behavior, 1973
- Studies in genotype-environment interaction. I. Methodology and preliminary multivariate analysis of a diallel cross of eight strains of ratBehavior Genetics, 1972
- A quantitative genetic analysis of runway learning in miceBehavior Genetics, 1970
- Familientradition in der Gesangsentwicklung des Gimpels(Pyrrhula pyrrhula L.)Journal of Ornithology, 1959