Chapter 6 - Instinctive and learned behaviour

Question 1

Instinctive behaviours are controlled by….

Answer 1

• reflex responses e.g. woodlice moving away from the light.
• Simple animals have simple nervous systems, so they can’t learn behaviours.

Question 2

What is conditioning?

Answer 2

• a reflex to to a stimulus can be learned by introducing an unrelated stimulus (secondary stimulus) in association with the first. This is called conditioning.

Question 3

Give examples of conditioning in use

Answer 3

• Ivan Pavlov’s work with dogs. Dogs produce saliva (salivate) in response to the smell, sight, taste of food. Pavlov rang a bell immediately before giving dogs food. This process was repeated. Soon, the dogs would produce saliva at the sound of the bell, even if not given food. They had learned to associate the bell with food.
• John B Watsons study with eight month old Albert. Albert liked, and showed no fear of a white lab rat. Albert was then shown the white lab rat while Watson made a loud noise which made Albert cry. Later, when Albert was shown the rat, he showed signs of distress even when there was no loud noise

Question 4

What was the primary and secondary stimulus with Pavlov’s dogs?

Answer 4

• With Pavlov’s dogs, the bell is called the secondary stimulus; the primary stimulus is the food. Here, the secondary stimulus has no direct connection with the primary stimulus.

Question 5

How do conditioned reflexes help us and other animals, to survive?

Answer 5

• For example, association of a plants bright colours with the fact that the plant is poisonous helps an animal that that’s likely to eat the plant to avoid it and survive (if it survives its first encounter 🤔)

Question 6

Animals have certain behaviours that help them to survive in their environment. Behaviour can either be….

Answer 6

• instinctive or learned