{"id":17816,"date":"2019-09-05T03:21:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T03:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17816"},"modified":"2019-09-06T10:40:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T10:40:14","slug":"complex-birdsongs-help-biologists-piece-together-the-evolution-of-lifelong-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/complex-birdsongs-help-biologists-piece-together-the-evolution-of-lifelong-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Complex birdsongs help biologists piece together the evolution of lifelong learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristina Robinson<\/a>, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em>; Kate Snyder<\/a>, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em>, and Nicole Creanza<\/a>, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Bonjour! Ni hao! Merhaba! If you move to a new country as an adult, you have to work much harder to get past that initial \u201chello\u201d in the local language than if you\u2019d moved as a child. Why does it take so much effort to learn a new language later in life?<\/p>\n

Our human ability to learn language slows down as we get older<\/a>, but scientists are not sure how or why this happens. An unexpected way to understand this learning process might come from listening to birds sing.<\/p>\n

After all, songbirds have a lot to learn. They don\u2019t hatch knowing<\/a> what songs to sing, or how to sing them. Instead, they must learn their species\u2019 song<\/a>. Young birds listen to adult birds and then practice copying the adult\u2019s song syllables until they sound right. If they fail to learn an appropriate song, male birds will have difficulty attracting mates<\/a> or defending their territories.<\/p>\n