Animal Behaviour

Innate Behaviour
1. What is innate behaviour?
  1. A behaviour that an animal is capable of from birth without any learning or practice.
  2. Must be genetically based
  3. Behaviours appear to be very inflexible
    1. Often these behaviours may be slightly modified in individuals by some elements of learning
      1. E.g. Courtship
      2. E.g. Nesting
      3. E.g. Food selection behaviour
2. Advantages of innate behaviour
  1. Only a few neurones are required
  2. Useful for organisms that have a short live span
  3. Provides immediate survival to the young
  4. Doesn't need to be learned
  5. Likely to be appropriate to the individuals environment because the alleles controlling it are likely to have been subject to natural selection
3. Examples of innate behaviour
  1. Escape Reflexes
    1. Determined by a pattern of neurones between receptors and effectors.
      1. Automatic (involuntary), fast, protective movements in response to a stimulus.
        Touching sensitive nerves with wide axons. This leads to a sudden muscle contraction.
  2. Taxes
    1. Movement related to direction of stimulus (away from or towards)
  3. Kineses
    1. Rate of movement modified by external stimulus
      1. Related to intensity of the stimulus
    2. Random movement
Learned Behaviour
1. What is learned behaviour?
  1. An ability to change behaviour in response to some change in the environment.
  2. The experience is retained and used to modify behaviour in the future.
  3. Aids survival by saving energy needed for growth.
  4. Best when life is longer
2. Examples of learned behaviour
  1. Habituation
    1. Avoids wasting energy in response to non-harmful stimuli
    2. Repeated application of a stimulus results in decreased responsiveness
    3. A snail touching a leaf with its antennae
      1. Each time the snail touches the leaf it will not respond protectively and it will re-emerge from its shell more quickly.
  2. Imprinting
    1. Survival skills learned from parent in receptive period after birth
      1. Causes young animal to form a more or less permanent attachment with a larger, moving object.
  3. Classical Conditioning
    1. Recognising the link between stimuli and responding to one stimulus in anticipation of the other stimulus
      1. Pavlov's Salivating Dogs and the metronome
        Centred on involuntary, automatic behaviours (i.e. salivating).
  4. Operant Conditioning
    1. Voluntary behaviour (i.e. smiling) associated with rewards or sanctions
      1. Links an operation (e,g, pressing a lever) with a reward such as food
        E.g. Seen in rats and pigeons in a 'Skinner Box'
        Trial-and-error learning

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Animal Behaviour

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