Behavior Flashcards
Science of animal behavior.
Ethology
Revolutionized much of the study related to biology and ethology.
Introduced the theory of evolution and natural selection.
Believed animal behavior was mostly generated by instinct (a combination of innate responses characteristic of a species).
Laid the foundation for classical ethology (which asserts that much of what animals know is instinctive).
Charles Darwin
Characterizes all related organisms as descended from common ancestors.
A natural process of slow change and development that gradually leads to the development of new species of plants/animals over a very long period of time.
Evolution
A particular animal species’ instinct enables species to respond appropriately to a wide range of conditions (stimuli) in the natural world to ensure the appropriate responses lead to survival and less successful responses lead to death or less successful reproduction which leads to the extinction of the less successful behavior.
Natural Selection
Asserts that much of what animals know is instinctive.
(ex. Cats have an innate/instinctive ability to bury their urine/feces in a litter box)
Classical Ethology
Tinbergen’s 4 Questions
Function
Mechanism
Development
Evolutionary History
One of the founding fathers of modern ethology who dedicated much of his research to identifying various kinds of fixed action patterns.
Konrad Lorenz
Any object can elicit the same response by exhibiting the cues.
Fixed Action Patterns
Young animals follow their parents because of auditory/visual cues the parents present.
This rapid learning process enables the very young to recognize/bond with their caretaker(s) as well as identify them as individuals.
Imprinting
The theory that behavior is learned rather than genetically programmed.
Behavioralism
Originator of behavioralism and formulated stimulus-response theory.
John B. Watson
All complex forms of behavior (including emotions, thoughts, and habits) are complex muscular and glandular responses that can be observed and measured.
Stimulus-Response Theory
Challenged the notion of animal behavior being purely instinctual during his classical conditioning experiment of training laboratory animals to automatically salivate (an unconditioned response) at the sound of a bell (a conditioned stimulus).
Ivan Pavlov
The association of stimuli that happens at approximately the same time or in roughly the same area.
ex. Pavlov —> bell reliably signaled that food was on the way
Classical Conditioning
The association of an activity with punishment or reward.
Operant Conditioning
Person
Organisms are doing what they naturally do until they accidentally encounter a stimuli that creates conditioning which results in a change in behavior.
Rats learned to touch a bar of a reward —> push lever for food.
B.F. Skinner
Adding something.
Can be good (toy or treat)
Can be bad (loud noise)
Positive
Taking something away/removing something.
Can be taking away something aversive (like a shock)
Can be removing something an animal likes (such as attention from a person)
Negative
You want the learned to continue the behavior.
Encouragement.
Reinforcement
You want the behavior to go away, stop behavior.
Typically aversive (unpleasant/uncomfortable).
Punishment
You add something to increase behavior.
Add something pleasant to increase behavior.
ex. offer a treat when dogs sit on cue.
Positive Reinforcement
You take something away to increase behavior.
Remove something unpleasant to increase behavior.
ex. you take away your teenager’s chores for the day because they finish their homework.
Negative Reinforcement
You add something to decrease a behavior.
Add unpleasant response to decrease behavior.
ex. you use an air horn to stop a dog from barking.
Positive Punishment