Animal Behaviors
Behaviory Animals are born with certain behaviors and they learn
others. y Behavior-is the way an organism interacts with other organisms and its environment. y Anything in the environment that causes a reaction is called a stimulus. y Stimulus examples: Hunger & Thirst
Stimulus example:You are the stimulus that causes your dog to bark and wag its tail. Your dogs reaction to you is a response.
Innate Behaviory Innate Behavior-a behavior that an organism is
born with. y These types of behaviors are inherited and dont have to be learned. Innate behaviors are not learned from parents. y Innate behaviors occur the first time an animal responds to a particular internal or external stimulus. y Innate behavior allows animals to respond instantly. This quick response often means the difference between life and death.
Innate Behaviorsy Birds have innate behaviors when they build nests.
y Moths will fly towards a light and a cockroach with run away from it.
Reflexes vs. InstinctsReflexesy The simplest innate behaviors y Reflex-the automatic
Instinctsy An instinct- is a complex
response that does not involve a message from the brain. y Sneezing, shivering, yawning, blinking your eyes, jerking your hand away from a hot surface y You are only aware of the reaction AFTER it has happened.
pattern of innate behaviors. y These behaviors can take time to complete y Instinct behaviors begin when an animal recognizes a stimulus and continues until all parts of the behavior have been preformed. y EX: Spiders spinning a web. It is spun correctly the first try.
REFLEX
Instinct
Learned BehaviorsyALL animals have innate and learned behaviorsy Learned behaviors develop during an animals lifetime. y Learned behaviors allow animals to respond to changing
situations such as changing environments. y Animals have the ability to learn a new behavior are more likely to survive. y EX: Older birds have learned that leaves will not harm them, but they freeze when a hawk moves overhead. Chicks instantly crouch without moving until the danger has passed.
Types of Learned Behaviory Imprinting-occurs when an animal forms a
social attachment to another organism within a specific time period after birth or hatching. Ex: young ducks following their mother because the mother can find food & escaping predatorsy Trial & Error- Behavior that is modified by
experience. Ex: Learning how to balance on your bicycle
Types of Learned Behaviory Conditioning-Behavior is modified so that a
response to one stimulus becomes associated with a different stimulus 2 Types of Conditioning: 1. Introducing a new stimulus before the usual stimulus. Ex: Russian scientist, Ivan P. Pavlov rang a bell before he fed the dogs. Pavlov then rang the bell without giving the dogs food and the dogs salivated when the bell rung even though he did not show them food. The dogs were conditioned to respond to the bell.
Types of Learned Behavior. The new stimulus is given after the affected behavior. EX: getting an allowance for doing chores. You do your chores because you want to receive your allowance.
Types of Learned Behaviory Insight is a form of reasoning that allows animals
to use past experiences to solve new problems. EX:You have a new math problem to solve. You use what you previously learned in math to solve the problem. For example, you learned to add single digits then two digits. y Most of adult human learning is based on insight.
