Aquisition Of Behaviour

Question 0

Definition of learning

Answer 0

Change in cognitive state due to experience

Question 1

How does the waggle dance in honey bees work?

Answer 1

Signals location of a new food source
Vertical movement means angle of the sun from food source
Distance of dance means distance to fly
Frequency of wiggles means how good the food source is

Question 2

How do you study learning experimentally?

Answer 2

-Control group + experimental group
-Experimental group gets to gain experience
-Subject both groups to the same test
Defining the experience is crucial
Test cannot tell what learning has taken place, just whether it has
Example: control group of young birds + group of young birds placed with adults. Both group places with females to establish whether singing is learnt.

Question 3

What are the 3 dimensions of learning?

Answer 3

1) the conditions necessary to learn. Eg age, sex, past experience.
2) content learnt - experience can change strength between stimuli and response, what is learnt depends on the extent of an innate ‘template’
3) the effects of learning - the behaviour that will result from this learning, when it will be used (immediately/later), alter whole behaviour or singular aspect etc

Question 4

What is Pavlovian conditioning and how does it work?

Question 5

What is recognition learning? (Definition)

Answer 5

• Oxford dictionary definition: to be perceived to be identical with something previously known
• behavioural ecology: to classify other objects or animals appropriately on first encounter
• can be innate or learnt
• it has adaptive value (increases fitness of learner)

Question 6

Examples of object recognition

Answer 6

• Brood parasitism - parents reject eggs that are most different from their own
• orientation flights in bees - Young bees pick up landmarks for orientation back to the nest
• solitary wasps - have nest in ground, cannot find it again if rocks are moved

Question 7

Examples of kin recognition

Answer 7

• Belding’s ground squirrels: presented with scent of unfamiliar animal, time spent investigating decreases with subsequent presentations. Time spent investigating own kin decreases with increased relatedness.
• Facial recognition in social animals: primarily studied in eusocial paper wasps. Recognition of individuals stabilises social interactions

Question 8

What are the three main mechanisms of recognition learning?

Answer 8

Habituation
Perceptual learning
Imprinting