Adult learning and mate choice: Possibilities and experimental evidence

Abstract

A critical issue in the study of mate choice is the analysis of the stimuli that elicit and regulate sexual behavior. Studies with Japanese quail, several mammalian species, and a fish species (the blue gourami) indicate that the stimulus control of sexual behavior is determined in part by what animals learn as a result of sexual interactions in adulthood.Species specific stimuli provided by a sexual partner can become conditioned by sexual reinforcement and thereby come to elicit more vigorous social behavior. Discrete localized stimuli as well as spatial contextual cues of the environment in which social interactions occur can also become conditioned. Sexually conditioned localized stimuli may elicit approach and?/or courtship conditioned responses and may increase responding to species specific eliciting stimuli provided by a sexual partner. Sexually conditioned contextual stimuli also may increase responding to species specific stimulus features of a sexual partner. These findings indicate that the features of a conspecific to which an animal responds sometimes may be determined by what that animal has learned as a result of sexual experience. The findings also suggest that a complete account of the stimulus control of sexual behavior requires consideration of not only stimulus aspects of conspecifics that elicit sexual responses but also discrete and contextual environmental stimuli that may become associated with sexual experience. © 1992 by the American Society of Zoologists.