How to Test Learned & Inherited Behavior

Leave half the of the goose eggs with the mother and place the rest in the incubator. Allow both sets of eggs to hatch, making sure that you are the first creature the incubated set have contact with. The mother's goslings should be left to develop naturally.

After a day, place all the goslings in the box together. Make sure you are on one side of the box and the mother is on the other. Watch the group of goslings divide into the incubated set and the naturally reared section. For more dramatic results, take all the goslings out of the box and simply place them on the ground. The incubated goslings should walk towards you while the others return to their mother. This phenomenon is called "imprinting." The incubator goslings will attach themselves to a parent figure within 12 to 17 hours of being born, a seemingly innate instinct.

Keep the incubated goslings separate from the mother for the rest of the experiment. Over the months record any difference in sound and behavior between the two sets of goslings. When the incubator goslings are hungry, they may or may not make the same sounds as the naturally reared goslings. They may not learn to feed themselves if they don't have a mother, and also might not interact with their siblings the same way they would naturally. By recording these data, it should be possible to see which behaviors are innate and which need to be learned.