Innate & Learned Behaviours Flashcards
What is an example of a simple behavioural response to a stimulus?
Reflex arc
How is the pain reflex moderated/ controlled?
By the spinal cord (rather than the brain)
What is the neural pathway of a reflex arc?
- Action potential stimulates an effector (muscle/ gland)
- Involves a sensory neuron, stimulated by sensory cells, trigger motor neuron that is connected to an effector
- generates a response
What are the 3 neurons involved in a reflex arc?
Sensory neurons
Motor neurons
Relay neurons
How does the reflex arc work?
Receptor cells detect stimulus from enviro
Sensory neurons connect recptor to CNS
relay neurons co-ordinate response
Synpases join neurons to other neurons or the effector
Motor neurons connect CNS to effector
Effector takes action
What are the 8 sense organs?
- Hearing ( Auditory)
- Vision( Visual)
- Taste ( Gustation)
- Smell ( Olfactory)
- Touch ( Tactile)
- Thermal
- Electro
- Magnetic
What are photoreceptors for?
Response to light (vision)
What are Thermoreceptors for?
Response to thermal energy (heat)
What are Chemoreceptors for?
Response to chemicals (taste, smell)
What are Hygroreceptors for?
Response to humidity
What are magnetoreceptors for?
To detect and respond to the magnetic field
What are Electroreceptors for?
To detect and response to electric impulses and fields
What is an example of an innate behaviour?
Reflex arc Fixed Action Patterns (FAP) Suckling in newborns Imprinting Hunting
What is kinesis?
Changes in activity of movement in response to stimulus
What is Taxis?
Orientated movement towards or away from a stimulus
What is positive and negative phototaxis?
Positive phototaxis = movement TOWARDS a light
Negative phototaxis = movement AWAY from a light
What are instincts?
an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour in animals in response to certain stimuli.
What are some examples of instincts?
yawning
newly hatched turtles searching for water
Scratching an itch
Being afraid of heights (?)
What causes innate behaviours?
Natural selection
How does natural selection cause innate behaviours?
Favourable behaviours give individuals a survival and reproductive advantage
Have genetic basis that is passed on and proliferates in population
Can change over time
What is a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
An instinctive stereotypical behaviour / behavioural repertoire sequence – once initiated, almost always gets completed.
Are FAPs innate or learned?
innate
What is an example of a FAP?
Greylag Geese:
- if egg rolls out of nest, female will instinctively use her bill to push eggs back into the nest (won’t stop until completed)
What causes FAPs
Neural networks - innate releasing mechanism triggered in response to an external sensory stimulus (a ‘sign stimulus’ in animal behaviours)
What is the FAP trigger in stickleback aggression?
The red underbelly of males
What is the FAP in sticklebacks?
Nesting stickleback males will not attack fish without red colouration
Will attack if red colouration is present
What are some examples of learned behaviours?
Domestication of pets
Vocal communication (i.e; language in humans)
Training dolphins, sea lions etc to do tricks
Sign language in gorillas
What is an example of a complex behaviour? (Combination of innate and learned)
Locusts - known how to fly from birth but get better with practice
(learn to expel less energy for more efficiency)
Hybrid lovebirds - After 6 months only 41% successful at nest making. After 2 years, 99% successful
What do Morgan and Carter (2008) conclude about complex behaviours?
- Animals appear to show a combination of both learnt and innate behaviours and that the basis of both is genetic
What is classical conditioning?
A method of associative learning that teaches animals to respond to a stimulus (results in an automatic response)
What is operant conditioning?
A method of reinforcing desired behaviours.
Positive reinforcement = rewards
Negative reinforcement = punishment/ avoidant of bad stimulus
How does classical conditioning work?
A neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response
How does learnt behaviour affect survival?
It allows an individual to adjust its behaviour as a response to the environment
How did Skinner use operant conditioning?
Rats and pigeons were trained to push levers and perform actions to receive food rewards (positive reinforcement) or were electrocuted as punishment for incorrect actions (negative reinforcement)
