Learning Flashcards
What is kinesis?
Non-directional movement.
Woodlice move faster in response to temperature extremes.
What is taxis?
Movement towards or away from stimuli.
Light stimulus: phototaxis; Chemical stimulus: chemotaxis.
What type of taxis do woodlice exhibit?
Negative phototaxis.
What is a fixed action pattern?
Innate behaviour triggered by a sign stimulus (releaser).
Once initiated, it is usually carried to completion even if the stimulus is removed.
What is an example of a fixed action pattern observed by Niko Tinbergen?
Chicks peck at red dots on adults’ bills, causing adults to release food.
Chicks begin pecking after hatching and peck more at a red stick.
What is habituation?
Loss of responsiveness to irrelevant stimuli.
Why is habituation considered adaptive?
It allows organisms to use fewer resources by not responding.
What is imprinting?
Behavior that includes learning and innate components, generally irreversible, and occurs during a sensitive period in development.
What is associative learning?
Learning by associating one stimulus with another or with a behavioral response.
What are the two types of conditioning in associative learning?
1) Classical conditioning - arbitrary stimuli associated with an outcome. 2) Operant conditioning (reinforcement) - associating behavior with reward or punishment.
What is classical conditioning?
A type of associative learning where arbitrary stimuli are associated with an outcome.
Example: associating a certain location with a predator and avoiding that location in the future.
What is operant conditioning?
A type of associative learning where behavior is associated with reward or punishment.
Example: a dog goes outside to pee and gets a treat.
Who is associated with classical conditioning?
Pavlov, known for the experiment with dog food and a tuning fork.
Who is associated with operant conditioning?
Skinner, known for the box with rats that press a lever to release food.
What is problem solving in learning?
The process of devising a strategy to overcome an obstacle, requiring complex cognition.
What is the debate in animal learning literature?
The debate is between those who maintain that all animal learning is associative and those suggesting there is complex cognition.
Who is Betty the Caledonian crow?
A crow that challenges previously assumed avian intelligence, suggesting cognitive abilities may be more widespread than humans and primates.
What is social learning?
Learning that occurs through observation and copying experienced individuals, not through associative or trial and error methods.
What are the benefits of social learning?
It provides a shortcut to acquiring information, saving costs of individual learning, and reduces the need to search the entire home range for food or evaluate predators.
What is cultural transmission?
Cultural transmission is the process by which behaviors are passed from one individual to another and retained in a population beyond the innovator’s lifetime.
Can cultural transmission spread quickly?
Yes, cultural transmission can spread very quickly, much faster than genetic transmission.
What is an example of cultural transmission in monkeys?
A female monkey started washing potatoes in a stream, and this behavior spread throughout the troop, modified over generations to washing potatoes in the sea.
What are the types of social learning?
The types of social learning are: 1. Copying: facilitation + enhancement, 2. Imitation, 3. Teaching.
