Tutoring

The Tutoring Task explores how human language and zebra finch song emerges through interaction and imitation—key building blocks of human language. Across humans and zebra finches we investigate whether social feedback and repeated patterns help individuals learn their respective communicative system. By studying how children and zebra finches respond to and reproduce the sounds and sequences they hear, we aim to understand how early imitation and social context shape learning. In humans, this includes analysing natural conversations of children to see how repetition influences language learning. In birds, it means tracking how young finches learn songs by engaging with their tutor. Together, this research helps uncover the evolutionary roots of how social interaction helps acquire communicative systems.