In its youth, a pet parrot was owned by someone who kept the wings clipped and never allowed it to fly. Later in life, the new owner let the feathers grow and let the parrot fly around the house. But the parrot kept knocking over lamps and crashing into walls. "Wow," said the owner, "I guess parrots are just too clumsy to fly around a house without destroying everything." What is an alternative explanation?

Question

A.  In nature, parrots have much more room to fly, and do not have to navigate around delicate home decor.
B.  Since the parrot was not able to practice flying during the critical period for flight development, the brain circuits for accurate flying were not able to develop.
C.  The parrot just needs more practice flying -- although it did not get to fly when young, this should not affect later ability.
D.  The critical period for flying development in the brain has just now begun with the bird's first attempt. In a few weeks the critical period will end, so it must practice during this time.


Clarify question:
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
 
What type of thinking is required?

Gather Content:
What do you already know about behaviors in an adult parrot based on how it was raised? What other information is related to the question? 

Choose Answer:
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

B.  Since the parrot was not able to practice flying during the critical period for flight development, the brain circuits for accurate flying were not able to develop.


Clarify question:
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
Possible explanation for the behavior seen in a parrot.
 
What type of thinking is required?
This is an evaluate question. You are being presented with a situation and you are being asked to select the best possible explanation for the behavior of the parrot.

Gather Content:
What do you already know about behaviors in an adult parrot based on how it was raised? What other information is related to the question? 
This question comes from the section of the textbook that discusses the role of imprinting. Imprinting occurs during an early critical period in the life of an animal. If the imprinting does not occur within the critical period the animals may never be able to fully perform certain behaviors.

Choose Answer:
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer? In the wild, parrots can fly just as well as any other species of bird. This clumsy parrot may never be able to fly because it failed to learn the basics of flight during its early life. The neural patterns weren’t fully developed and thus the parrot may never be able to fly well.

Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
Were you able to select the correct choice? The key to this evaluation question was to associate the clumsy fling of the parrot with the lack of neural development during the critical period for flight.