PETER MARLER Professor emeritus, Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior "The Instinct to Learn: Some Animal Models" Marler, a pioneer in his field and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, will address the question of the relative importance of nature and nurture for the development of behavior and learning ability. Empirical research, including his own 30 years of studying how birds acquire their songs, suggests that behavior and learning must be based in elaborate genetic instructions, Marler says. But rather than trying to calculate the relative contributions of nature vs. nurture in the traditional fashion, we may need to devise new theoretical approaches for untangling the complex influences of genome and environment. As a first step, he suggests cleaning up scientific terminology to move beyond the commonly used dichotomy of "learned" or "unlearned," which "encourages a mind-set in dealing with the nature/nurture problem that is counterproductive." Symposium: "Bound to Speak: Universal Grammar in First Language Acquisition" Date and time: Monday, Feb. 16, 3 p.m.