ACE BIO: Chapter 2 Animal behaviour

The branch of Ethology is the study of Animal behaviour which is to understand the actions of animals in terms of their fitness.

There are certain kinds of behaviours that are innate to the animal, meaning that it comes naturally, it does not have to be learned or practiced, it is the animal's inherent inclinations towards a complex behaviour or task. There are four types of innate or instinct behaviours;

• instincts

• reflexes

• fixed action patterns

• imprinting

Instincts are involuntary rapid responses to stimuli, they occur and are present from birth onwards, and are not learned. Instinctual behaviours ensure the survival of a species, enhances viability, occurs without thought.

Reflexes are rapid responses to stimuli that are involuntary. There are two kinds of reflexes, simple reflexes and complex reflexes.

Fixed Action patterns these actions are considered as instincts and they are standardized to be initiated by a single stimulus, which will always go to completion once initiated. They are predictable behavior that ensure increased survivability of the species, no need for learning.

Imprinting is the process of learning in the first few days of early life where the behavior will never be forgotten, occurs during a period called the critical imprinting stage.

Learned behaviors, are behaviors or actions that must be learned which most likely will increase the animals fecundity and fitness.

There are three types of learned behaviors,

1. classical conditioning pairing a neutral stimulus to an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a unconditioned response, so that when the neutral stimulus is present the unconditioned response will occur in the presence or absence of the unconditioned stimulus. this pairing of a neutral stimulus to an unconditioned response leads to formation of a conditioned stimulus that results into a conditioned response. there are two types of classical conditioning;

   1. stimulus generalization is the assimilation of a similar stimulus to the conditioned stimulus to elicit the same conditioned response, there is a stimulus generalization gradient in which the stimulus is compared based on how similar it resembles the stimulus and the more different it is the lesser the extent of response.

   2. stimulus discrimination the ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and a non-conditioned stimulus for a conditioned response.

2. operant conditioning based on the skinner box experiments, the ability to associate a behavior with a reward or punishments

   1. positive punishment add a bad response to take away the behavior slapping your hands away from a warm out of the oven cookies

   2. positive reinforcement adding a good response to encourage a behavior, parents giving you money for every A you get

   3. negative punishment taking away something good to eliminate the behavior, taking your phone away after you get a low mark

   4. negative reinforcement take away something bad to encourage behavior, no jury duty if you are a law abiding citizen

3. associative learning is a type of learning based on one's own experiences that associates two things together. this allows an increase in the efficiency of the response, and can be forgotten extinction or remembered recovery

   1. sensitization repeated association of a stimulus with behavior amplifies the response.

   2. habituation is an associative learning where upon observing a stimulus repeatedly the response decreases due to prolonged or repeated incidences.

   3. observational learning through observing and understanding the bahaviors of other animals to learn the behavior, without any reinforcements

   4. insight understanding the relationship of various parts of the problem that ensues all-of-a-sudden learning, with no prior engagements, and no prior learning. an animal in a new situation that uses understanding to alleviate a problem

   5. spatial learning associating a response with a location

Test your understanding:

Question :

what type of behavior is this?

Male Fish respond to other male fish with red bellies with attacking them to prevent them from mating with their female counterparts, when exposed to a red stimulus this behavior is carried out without identifying the object as fish or not.

1. habituation

2. sensitization

3. Fixed action pattern

4. positive reinforcement

For more questions check out other biology threads.