ETYMOLOGY OF ‘INSTINCT’ The term instinct derives from Indo European, Greek, and Latin roots meaning “stick” “to goad,” e.g., Latin stiguere -- to goad,

ETYMOLOGY OF ‘INSTINCT’

The term instinct derives from Indo European, Greek, and Latin roots meaning “stick” “to goad,” e.g., Latin stiguere -- to goad, excite, or incite; instiguere -- to incite, to instigate. Greek: stigma -- a pricked mark, a brand.

Fig. 3. Human beings also display several instinctive motor behaviors, which generally manifest themselves immediately after birth. They are called behavioral reflexes, such as when a new-born firmly holds a rope and he can be lifted. This behavior appeared in evolution among the primates, so that infants hold to the mothers' hair and do not fall off when she moves briskly.

Taken from Etologia - Introducción Al Estudio Comparado del Comportamiento. I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt Ediciones Omega - Barcelona, 1974From: http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n09/fastfacts/comportold_i.htm

INSTINCTIVE MOTOR BEHAVIOR

Fig.1. In a small pond, a cardinal feeds minnows, which rose to the surface looking for food. During several weeks the bird fed them, probably because his nest had been destroyed.

Taken from Animal Behavior, N. Tinbergen, Time Inc, 1966.

From: http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n09/fastfacts/comportold_i.htm

Fig. 2. Female goose behavior of picking eggs up. When it sees an egg outside the nest (key stimulus), it begins a repeated movement of dragging the egg with its beak and neck. However, if the eggs slides off or if it is removed by the researcher, the goose continues to repeat the stereotypic movements even if the egg is absent, until it reaches the nest, when then it does it all over again. FAP seems to correspond to a fixed neural circuitry elicited by the overall trigger stimuli. Taken from Etologia - Introdución Al Estudio Comparado del Comportamiento I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt Ediciones Omega - Barcelona, 1974

From: http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n09/fastfacts/comportold_i.htm

FIXED ACTION PATTERN

EXAMPLES OF INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR

• Loggerhead turtles (found off east coast of Florida) Females deposit about 50-100 eggs in small holes they dig on sandy beach. Eggs hatch in approximately 50 days. After 3-5 days in the nest infant turtles crawl out, head for sea and swim out. Conclusion: Loggerhead turtle has an instinct to go to sea.

• Imprinting: Young goslings follow their mother (or Lorenz; whichever comes first) wherever she moves. Conclusion: Young goslings follow their mother instinctively (imprinting is an instinctive reaction).

• Crows that live in western part of North America migrate each fall from Alberta Canada to the south. The following spring they head north again. Conclusion: Crows have an instinct to migrate.

• Pregnant female rats build nests of laboratory shavings. After giving birth to her litter, mother rat looks after her young, suckles them, retrieves them when they stray from nest, etc. Conclusions: This is the result of a maternal instinct.

CRITICAL PERIOD FOR FOLLOWING RESPONSE

LORENZ: BASIC CONCEPTS

• Sign Stimuli (key to a lock)

• Fixed Action Pattern (Response of whole organism, not a reflex)

• Innate Releasing Mechanism (leads to consummatory event)

• Vacuum Activity (IRM released in absence of sign stimulus).

Umwelt: sensory world of the animal

Merkwelt: our perception of the environment

(Von Uexkull)

Example: A pond is perceived differently by a:

tadpole fish paramecia

hawk duck fisherman

CRITICAL FEATURES OF SIGN STIMULI

SIGN STIMULI(Stickleback)

SUPERNORMAL STIMULUS

SUPERNORMAL STIMULUS(Oystercatcher Egg)

CATEGORIES OF BEHAVIOR

Unconditioned Conditioned

Voluntary or operant

Looking

Babbling

Crawling

Reading

Writing

Fence jumping

Involuntary or respondent

Pupil response

GSR response

GSR when telling a lie

ORIENTING RESPONSES

• TAXES: Movement towards or away from some feature of the environment.

- Positive (e.g., Positive geotropism).

- Negative (e.g., Negative phototropism).

• KINESES: Rate of movement (but not direction) is determined by some feature of the environment.

- Orthokinesis: Rate of movement (in any direction) is a function of environmental conditions.

- Klino-kinesis: Rate of turning (but not velocity) s a function of environmental conditions.

PROPORTION OF WOODLICE INACTIVE FOR 30 SECONDS AS A

FUNCTION OF HUMIDITY

DO DRIVERS LIKE TRAFFIC JAMS?

Area Rural UrbanRural

Speed (mph) 40 1040

Distance (miles) 10 20 30Time covered by 15’ 60’ 15’each car (min.)

No. of cars 25 100 25

ROUND DANCE

COMMUNICATING ANGLE OF FOOD SOURCE WITH WAGGLE DANCE

KEY PHASES OF BLOWFLY EATING CYCLE:

• pumping reflex of proboscis

• sensory adaptation of sugar receptors

• sugar concentration of food

• state of crop

• state of gut (blood sugar level)

FORAGING CYCLE OF BLOWFLY

- Gut is empty at beginning of cycle.

- Flight is guided by kineses (e.g., temperature, light level, time of day, odor of fermenting sugars in plants).

- Taxes guide approach to specific stimuli.

- Blowfly lands on leaf.

- Sugar receptors on hairs of legs are stimulated.

- Proboscis uncoils reflexively.

-Rate of pumping from proboscis to crop is a function of sweetness and adaptation level of sugar receptors. Sweetness steadily decreases.

-Sweetness eventually falls below some critical value; pumping resumes.

-Intake is not a simple cyclic function of adaptation of sugar sensors.

-The digestive tract regulates the value of threshold for sweetness.

-Crop stores food and then transfers it to main gut and to bloodstream.

FORAGING CYCLE OF BLOWFLY, cont’d

THREE PHASES OF MOTIVATED ACTIVITY(As Illustrated by Feeding Cycle of Blowfly)

• DRIVE: Some state of a regulator produces or makes probable (e.g., empty crop).

• APPETITIVE BEHAVIOR: responses to stimuli, which contribute to a consummatory event, (e.g., ingesting sugar).

• CONSUMMATORY EVENT: a shift in the regulator away from its initial drive state (e.g., transferring food from crop to gut).

SPARROW SONGS

CHAFFINCH SONGS

DEVELOPMENT OF CHAFFINCH SONG

• Chaffinch is born in the spring.

• It sings its mature song 1 year later (at which time it also nests for the first time).

• During the first few weeks after hatching, it only emits food begging calls.

• During the summer and fall it produces a subsong, bits of the full song that are not integrated into correct sequence and that are not sung as loudly as full song.

• During the winter, there is very little singing of any kind.

• During the following spring it resumes singing the subsong which, over a period of a few weeks, blends smoothly into full song.

• The transitional song is called plastic song (because it is more variable than full song).

• A permanent crystallized song finally appears about second month of the second spring. The crystallized song is sung every spring for the rest of the chaffinch’s life- approximately five years.

WHAT A CHAFFINCH SINGS

• First-year chaffinches, raised by themselves, or deafened, they will sing abnormal songs during the following spring.

- If they hear (but not see) a normal adult male, they will get it right during the second spring.

- If, however, the chaffinch crystallizes the wrong song during the second spring (by virtue of socializing with a different kind of finch) it will never get it right.

• Depending upon how much of the adult song the young chaffinch hears (and the quality of that song) it picks the best components to copy.

• If deafening occurs after the second spring, normal song is still produced.

CRITICAL PERIOD FOR IMPRINTING

ImprintingApparatus

Test: Will goslingfollow duck thatmoved duringtraining?

Test: Will goslingovercome obstaclesto follow duck?