4. Behaviour Motivation Models Flashcards
What is motivation?
The process WITHIN THE BRAIN controlling which behaviours and physiological changes occur and when
- Understanding motivation is fundamental to all studies of behaviour (eg. concerning feeding, repro, and handling)
- An appreciation of the subtleties of motivational systems is also necessary in order for behaviour to be used as an indicator of animal welfare
Do all inputs reach the decision-making center of the brain?
No! Some inputs never reach the decision-making center of the brain because the interpretation results in their relevance being assessed as “0”
- Most will reach the center after some modifications
Causal factors
The actual inputs to the decision-making center, which are interpretations of a wide variety of external changes and internal states of the body
- All changes in behaviour are manifestation of the animal’s response to changes in causal factors
What will the experimental investigation of the relationships between causal factors and behaviour involve?
Attempting to find out all the effects on behaviour of a single causal factor
- Cause -> Outcome 1, 2, 3 etc.
OR
Assessing the effects of variation in a wide range of causal factors on a single behaviour
- Cause 1, 2, 3 etc. —> Outcome
The STATE of the animal will change with respect to what?
Various causal factors
- as the levels of causal factors rise, there will be an increase in the likelihood of an animal exhibiting a particular behaviour, if the opportunity arises and the activity is likely to be successful
- eg. a thirsty pig being motivated to drink water (water motivated state)
Motivational state
The motivational state of an animal is a combination of the levels of all causal factors
- many causal factors can interact with one another to determine an animal’s motivational state; may lead to motivational conflict
What is behavioural sequencing?
- Appetitive Phase
- Comes first and comprises active, flexible, searching behaviours
- ex. foraging (food seeking), mate seeking - Consummatory Phase
- More stereotyped, unlearnt, species typical and motivation typical
- ex. drinking, mating, eating
Lorenz Psycho-Hydraulic Model
- Thought of motivation as an accumulation of action-specific energy that is released when the action occurs
- Energy isn’t the best term for the accumulating potential to perform an action, which is what Lorenz was using; said that if an animal can’t show a behavour, this energy builds over time
- Also, potential may accumulate for some actions, but not for all. Hence the model is useful in certain situations, but it is not a good general model. Assumes that motivation will get larger over time bc energy is passive; not true.
How did the new model, proposed by P. Jensen and F. Toates, see that animal as being?
- Intrinsically active rather than passive, even in the absence of impinging stimuli
- Goal-seeking (purposive)
- Flexible
- Able to learn cognitions
- Exploratory
Negative feedback
Process whereby execution of a behaviour pattern reduces the motivation to perform it and is important in limiting the length of bouts of many different behaviours
Hysteresis
Term meaning delayed negative feedback, wherein it takes a period of time for negative feedback to start reducing motivation
Can causal factors be measured directly? How is motivation monitored?
Causal factors cannot be measured directly
- Some estimates can be made through physiological measures; blood sugar, hormones, brain chemistry
- Most estimates of an animals’ motivational state are done using behavioural observations; especially where the change in motivational state is rapid
Best estimates are made using a multi-disciplinary approach
- Eg. when determining when one causal factor has more “urgency” than another (feeding and courtship o over grooming and nest repair)
Motivation conflict
Motivation conflict occurs all the time, because animals are constantly faced with multiple causal factors
- several different causal factors will always be competing
- one causal factor will have more ‘urgency’ than another or be more salient, thus having greater influence over the animal’s current motivation state
Homeostasis
Body state is maintained within a tolerable range of temperature, osmotic state, nutrient level, etc by a set of homeostatic control systems (keeps things in balance)
- outside of these tolerable ranges, remedial action is taken by the body
- some of these regulatory actions are physiological but many are behavioural
Sollwert vs. Iswert
Through experience, animals develop a predicted “sollwert” (should be value) for each important aspect of the environment, which is compared to the “iswert” (actual value)
- The animal is continually predicting changes in input and comparing actual and expected input
- Any animal that can predict the future has a tremendous advantage over one that cannot (part of the learning process)
- Previous unpleasant experience also result in expectations
