Learned Behaviour Flashcards
Habituation
Animals learn to ignore repeated stimuli if it results in no reward or punishment. This avoids wasting energy responding to unimportant e.g humans living near railroads.
Imprinting
Young animals learn to recognise and follow another organism usually a parent. This only occurs during a sensitive period, soon after hatching in birds e.g goslings follow first moving object they see and then only learn from this individual. This ensures young learn skills from the parent to find food and to fly. Also determines choice of mate. Important in captive breeding as care must be taken to prevent young imprinting on individuals of another species.
Classical Conditioning
Animal learn to associate two different stimuli or events and responds to the first in anticipation of the second. It’s passive and involuntary e.g Pavlov’s dogs conditioned reflex action of salivating at bell in anticipation of food.
Operant Conditioning
Skinner designed boxes where if lever is pressed a pellet of food delivered to box. A rat explores box and pushes lever accidentally and was rewarded. Next time rat pushed it more quickly, learning to associate action with food until it does it immediately. Trial-and-error learning. It’s active and deliberate.
Latent (exploratory) Learning
Animals explore new surroundings and retain this information. Important for finding food, shelter and knowing whereabouts so can escape predators e.g rats will explore maze and learn design even if no reward. If placed in same maze later with reward, they learn the maze faster than rats who had not experienced maze before.
Insight Learning
Bananas hung out of reach in cage and chimps given boxes. After trying to reach bananas unaided they are inactive for a while. Then chimp stacks boxes and reached bananas. This is only possible when chimps have had previous experience of playing with boxes. It’s insight as no trial and error involved, chimps work out solution by reasoning based on past judgement.
