Option A: A.4 Innate and learned behaviour Flashcards
Innate Behaviour
behavior inherited from parents and so develops independently of environmental context. They are controlled by genes. Genetically programmed behaviours, which ensure the survival of the animal.
Taxis
a directed response to a stimulus. If the animal’s body is directed towards the stimulus, we say it has a positive response. If away, negative response.
Chemotaxis
response to chemicals in the environment. .
Phototaxis
the response to light.
Gravitaxis
response to gravity.
Rheotaxis
response to water current
Thigmotaxis
response to touch
Planaria
a flatworm that lives in lakes and ponds, quite active and moves by contraction of muscle fibers in its body.
Euglena
single-celled protist, has a flagellum. Makes its own food by photosynthesis because it contains molecules of chlorophyll. It is positively phototaxis because it needs light to perform photosynthesis.
Kinesis
a movement in response to a non-directional stimulus, such as humidity. The rate of movement of an animal depends on the intensity of the stimulus, not its direction.
Orthokinesis
when an organism moves slowly or rapidly (changes speed) in response to a stimulus, but it does not move towards the stimulus.
Klinokinesis
when an organism turns slowly or rapidly in response to a stimulus, but it does not move towards the stimulus.
Pain Reflexes
involves a series of nerves that run from your arm to your spinal cord, and back to your arm muscle (if your arm is in pain). You do not control reflexes with your brain, they are controlled by the autonomic nervous system.
Reflex Arc
composed of a receptor cell, a sensory neurons, a relay neurone in the spinal cord, and a motor neurons which carries the message to the effector (muscle).
Effector
an organ that performs the response
Reflex conditioning
used to modify a reflex response, (Pavlov dog experiment)
UCS
unconditioned stimulus (the wave hand in Pavlov exp)
UCR
unconditioned response (the eye blink in Pavlov exp)
CS
conditioned stimulus (musical note in Pavlov exp)
CR
conditioned response ( eye blink in response to musical note in Pavlov exp)
Learned Behaviour
not genetically programmed behavior, it develops as a result of experience.
Imprinting
happens at a particular stage in life. It is a rapid learning process by which a young animal develops an attraction and recognition of another moving object, usually the mother. The behavior occurs regardless of the consequences.
Operant Conditioning
is a method of learning that occurs through reinforcements and punishments for behavior. It encourages the subject to associate desirable or undesirable outcomes with certain behaviors.
Encoding
brain processes information that it receives from the senses so that it can be remembered.
Visual encoding
converting information into mental pictures
Elaborative encoding
relating new information to old knowledge already stored in the memory
Accoustic encoding
encoding of sound, such as spoken language
Sensation encoding
encoding of sensations such as touch, smells and tastes
Semantic encoding
remembering sensory input in a context. for example using a mnemonic device such as ROYGBIV as a strategy to remember the colors of the light spectrum.
Short term memory
holds a small amount of information for a short period of time. It holds on to items we are actively thinking about. Information stored here is retrieved in sequence
Long term memory
stored over a long period of time. LTM involves a physical change in the neural network of the brain. With repeated use, the circuits of the brain are altered and strengthened
Recognition
association of a physical object or event with something already experienced. It involves comparing present information with memory. Recognition simply requires a decision about whether or not something has been encountered before.
Recall
involves remembering a fact, object, or event that is not currently present. Actively reconstructing the memory requires the activation of all the neurones involved in the memory. More complicated than recognition.
