The Limits of Learning Flashcards
Describe how physical characteristics limit learning.
Physical characteristics enable and prevent learning certain things/skills.
E.g., a dog has a better sense of smell and can be trained to follow a scent. This is not something that a human can do.
Describe Gardner’s work in teaching chimpanzees’ verbal behaviour.
He ) taught a chimp to use sign language, showing that animals are as adept as humans at learning language, but they do not have the anatomy to facilitate speech
Describe how the nonheritability of learned behaviour limits learning.
The fact that learned behaviour isn’t inherited also limits learning. Reflexes and fixed action patterns pass on among generations, but behaviour is acquired through learning and dies with the learner. This is the most severe limitation to learning.
Describe Lamarck’s theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
He theorized that physical characteristics were acquired adaptations that were passed on from generation. E.g., Giraffe’s long neck was due to having to stretch to reach leaves. This stretching would yield small differences would then pass on across the generations to eventually yield the very long neck we observe today. For him, evolution was the result of a given species’ adaptations to its environment. This would apply to learned behaviours as well.
Describe McDougall’s work in testing the theory that learned behaviours are inherited to some extent
He adopted Lamarckian view of learned behaviour, arguing that when experience modifies the behaviour of an organism, it also modifies its gene sin the same way. Offspring would then have an easier time learning the things that its parents had mastered. There has not been any evidence of this, though.
If acquired behaviours were passed on through inheritance, what disadvantages would this create?
If we had inherited our learning, though, it could have limited future inventions. E.g., being experts at hunting and gathering means that agriculture might never have been invented. We then would not be able to change with our environments and learned behaviours would no longer be adaptive.
Describe inherited learning abilities as a limitation on learning.
Learning ability is in part hereditary. This can explain why people are able to learn calculus and a chimp cannot.
Describe the research showing that learning abilities can be inherited in animals and in humans.
Most humans have an IQ similar to that of their parents. While environment is important, genes play a role.
Describe how neurological damage can limit learning ability.
Damage to the nervous system impacts learning ability because it means the equipment that we use to learn is no longer able to work at full capacity
What are common conditions that can cause such neurological damage.
- fetal alcohol exposure
- neurotoxins such as lead (particularly in early childhood)
- head injuries
- disease
- malnutrition (especially in utero)
What are critical periods?
Critical periods are points in the life of the organism when certain behaviours are easiest to learn; they are optimum stages for learning.
Describe the phenomenon of imprinting and explain how it involves a critical period in learning.
Imprinting, or the attachment some animals make to their mothers, happens during a critical period that occurs soon after birth. If the mother is unavailable, the youngster will imprint on any moving object/species.
Explain how social behaviour in dogs, maternal behaviour in sheep, and social skills in monkeys are all influenced by critical learning periods.
Dogs need to socialize with humans between 3-12 weeks of age, otherwise they will behave the same as wild animals and be fearful of humans. Sheep bottle-fed by humans were disinterested in other sheep when returned to the flock, and were bad mothers to their offspring later in life. Monkeys also have a critical period for socialization because when they were deprived of living mothers and instead given a soft object, they were fearful of other monkeys that were reared with their mothers, did not play or mate or parent normally, and never gained the social skills to match the other monkeys
Describe the Brelands’ work in training raccoons and pigs.
o The Brelands’ taught a raccoon to pick up coins and carry them to a piggy bank, but the raccoon struggled to let go of the coin and put it into the bank. They would put it in the bank slot, but pull it back out again and rub it between its paws. The raccoons were able to learn equally complex tasks, so it wasn’t the difficulty of the task. They later taught a pig to do the same thing similarly, but the pig began to behave oddly after a time, as the behaviour broke down. Instead of picking up a large wooden coin and carrying it to the bank, the pig would drop the coin to the ground, push it with its snout, throw it up into the air, nudge it again, etc. None of these behaviours (holding onto the coin, nudging the coin) were reinforced by the Brelands and the behaviours delayed reinforcement. The Brelands hypothesized that the innate tendencies of the animals interfered with learning. The raccoons were displaying “washing” behaviour that they often do with their food and the pigs were displaying rooting behaviour that they often do to unearth edible roots.
What is instinctive drift?
Instinctive drift is the tendency of an animal to revert to a fixed action pattern, setting limits on learning. Some tasks will be very easy to learn whereas others will be harder.
