Innate & Learned Behaviours

Question 1

What is an example of a simple behavioural response to a stimulus?

Answer 1

Reflex arc

Question 2

How is the pain reflex moderated/ controlled?

Answer 2

By the spinal cord (rather than the brain)

Question 3

What is the neural pathway of a reflex arc?

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

What are the 3 neurons involved in a reflex arc?

Answer 4

Sensory neurons
Motor neurons
Relay neurons

Question 5

How does the reflex arc work?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What are the 8 sense organs?

Answer 6

• Hearing ( Auditory)
• Vision( Visual)
• Taste ( Gustation)
• Smell ( Olfactory)
• Touch ( Tactile)
• Thermal
• Electro
• Magnetic

Question 7

What are photoreceptors for?

Answer 7

Response to light (vision)

Question 8

What are Thermoreceptors for?

Answer 8

Response to thermal energy (heat)

Question 9

What are Chemoreceptors for?

Answer 9

Response to chemicals (taste, smell)

Question 10

What are Hygroreceptors for?

Answer 10

Response to humidity

Question 11

What are magnetoreceptors for?

Answer 11

To detect and respond to the magnetic field

Question 12

What are Electroreceptors for?

Answer 12

To detect and response to electric impulses and fields

Question 13

What is an example of an innate behaviour?

Answer 13

Reflex arc 
Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)
Suckling in newborns
Imprinting
Hunting

Question 14

What is kinesis?

Answer 14

Changes in activity of movement in response to stimulus

Question 15

What is Taxis?

Answer 15

Orientated movement towards or away from a stimulus

Question 16

What is positive and negative phototaxis?

Answer 16

Positive phototaxis = movement TOWARDS a light

Negative phototaxis = movement AWAY from a light

Question 17

What are instincts?

Answer 17

an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour in animals in response to certain stimuli.

Question 18

What are some examples of instincts?

Answer 18

yawning
newly hatched turtles searching for water
Scratching an itch
Being afraid of heights (?)

Question 19

What causes innate behaviours?

Answer 19

Natural selection

Question 20

How does natural selection cause innate behaviours?

Answer 20

Favourable behaviours give individuals a survival and reproductive advantage
Have genetic basis that is passed on and proliferates in population
Can change over time

Question 21

What is a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)

Answer 21

An instinctive stereotypical behaviour / behavioural repertoire sequence – once initiated, almost always gets completed.

Question 22

Are FAPs innate or learned?

Answer 22

innate

Question 23

What is an example of a FAP?

Answer 23

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)

Question 24

What causes FAPs

Answer 24

Neural networks - innate releasing mechanism triggered in response to an external sensory stimulus (a ‘sign stimulus’ in animal behaviours)

Question 25

What is the FAP trigger in stickleback aggression?

Answer 25

The red underbelly of males

Question 26

What is the FAP in sticklebacks?

Answer 26

Nesting stickleback males will not attack fish without red colouration
Will attack if red colouration is present

Question 27

What are some examples of learned behaviours?

Answer 27

Domestication of pets
Vocal communication (i.e; language in humans)
Training dolphins, sea lions etc to do tricks
Sign language in gorillas

Question 28

What is an example of a complex behaviour? (Combination of innate and learned)

Answer 28

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

Question 29

What do Morgan and Carter (2008) conclude about complex behaviours?

Answer 29

• Animals appear to show a combination of both learnt and innate behaviours and that the basis of both is genetic

Question 30

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 30

A method of associative learning that teaches animals to respond to a stimulus (results in an automatic response)

Question 31

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 31

A method of reinforcing desired behaviours.

Positive reinforcement = rewards
Negative reinforcement = punishment/ avoidant of bad stimulus

Question 32

How does classical conditioning work?

Answer 32

A neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response

Question 33

How does learnt behaviour affect survival?

Answer 33

It allows an individual to adjust its behaviour as a response to the environment

Question 34

How did Skinner use operant conditioning?

Answer 34

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)