Weel 3: learning

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

Is the modification of behavior based on experience

Experience–> storing information (memory) –> modification of behavior

Learning enables animals to respond to environmental conditions

Question 2

Male thynnine wasps

Answer 2

A male wasp is attracted to mimetic sex pheromone released by an orchid flower attempts to copulate with the petal of an orchid flower

The flower has a decoy petal that the male wasp is attracted to, and after trying to copulate with it, yellow pollen sacs will be stuck to the male’s back

Question 3

The adaptive value of learning

Answer 3

The number of visits to a deceptive orchid soon falls after the male wasps in an area have interacted with it and learned that an unrewarding source of sex pheromone is associated with that particular location
—> spatial learning

Males save time and energy by avoiding particular orchids and improve their chances of encountering a receptive female

Question 4

Types of learning

Answer 4

Habituation
Imprinting
Spatial learning
Associative learning
Problem solving
Social learning

Question 5

Habituation

Answer 5

Loss of response to a stimulus after repeated exposure

The gradual facing of an unlearned response to a stimulus that proves to be safe or irrelevant

The most primitive and universal form of learning

Initial response to a stimulus –> Repeated occurrence without significant meaning –> the stimulus is ignored

Question 6

Gibbons

Answer 6

Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae.

Greater apes: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans and humans

Lesser apes: gibbons (14 species)

They are the fastest and most agile of all tree-dwelling, non-flying mammals.

Gibbons move by swinging from branch to branch for distances of up to 15 m.

Question 7

Habituation in Java Gibbons

Answer 7

A mother becomes a bridge for her young to cross by grabbing branches of two adjacent trees.

Question 8

Imprinting

Answer 8

The formation of a long-lasting behavioural response to a particular individual or object at a specific stage in life

Irreversible and limited to a sensitive period

Demonstrated in classic experiments by Konrad Lorenz

Important in formation of bonds between parents and young

Question 9

Bonding

Answer 9

During the sensitive period

The young: learn the basic behaviours of their species

The parent: learns to recognise its offspring

Question 10

How do the young know on whom or what to imprint?

Answer 10

• The tendency to respond is innate in the birds.
• The outside world provides the imprinting stimulus,
• In many species of waterfowl, they have no innate recognition of “mother.” Rather, they identify with the first object they encounter that has certain characteristics.

Question 11

Operation migration

Answer 11

has played a leading role in the reintroduction of endangered Whooping cranes into eastern North America since 2001.

Young crane chicks were raised and bonded with planes used as surrogate mothers
Young birds learned migration routes

Whooping cranes are an endangered species.

Question 12

Spatial learning

Answer 12

Using landmarks to learn the spatial structure of the environment

Question 13

Spatial learning in digger wasps

Answer 13

Female bees are provisioning their nests and male bees are patrolling over the nesting area to find mates.

Placed objects near the entrance dug by a female digger wasp

Moved the objects a short distance away when she left her nest

Upon returning the wasp oriented to the moved objects and could not find her nest entrance

Question 14

Cognitive mapping

Answer 14

An internal representation of the spatial relationships among objects in the environment

Question 15

Associative learning

Answer 15

Behavioural change based on linking a stimulus or behavior with reward or punishment; includes trial and error learning

Learning that occurs by making a connection or association between two events.

1. Classical conditioning
   - association between stimuli in the environment and involuntary reflexive behavior
   - An involuntary or reflexive behavior is one that you do not have to learn how to do. It is instinctual. You are born with it!
2. Operant conditioning:
   - association between the consequences of behaviours and voluntary actions

Question 16

The salivary condtitioning of Pavlov’s dog

Answer 16

Before conditioning:

Unconditioned stimulus (chicken) –> unconditioned response (salivating)

Neutral stimulus (bell) –> no response/no salivation

During conditioning:

unconditioned stimulus + neural stimulus –> unconditioned response (salivating)

After conditioning:

conditioned stimulus (bell) –> conditioned response (salivating)

Question 17

Classical conditioning

Answer 17

Pavlovian conditioning = neutral stimulus becomes associated with a reflex
US + CS –> CR

Question 18

Unconditioned Stimulus

Answer 18

Environmental stimulus

Not associated with previous conditioning

Question 19

Unconditioned Reflex

Answer 19

Innate

biological relevant

requires no learning

Question 20

conditioned stimulus

Answer 20

a previously neutral stimulus now associated with a reflex

Question 21

conditioned reflex

Answer 21

learned through conditioning

Question 22

Operant conditioning

Answer 22

an animal learns to associate a voluntary action with the consequences that follow from that action
instrumental conditioning or goal-directed learning

Organisms make responses that have consequences:
- The consequences serve to increase or decrease the probability of making that response again.
- The response can be associated with cues in the environment

Trial-and-error learning by a coyote. Porcupine’s sharp quills are strong deterrents against many predators.

Question 23

Skiner’s box

Answer 23

Rat/mouse approaches the bar, press it, awaits the arrival of a pellet of rat chow, consumes the pellet.

In operant conditioning, the animal must undertake some action or response in order for the conditioning process to produce learning.

Question 24

Problem solving

Answer 24

Inventive behavior that rises in response to a new situation

Animal cognition is the ability of an animal’s nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information gathered by sensory receptors

Some animals have complex cognitive abilities that include problem solving - the ability to apply past experience to novel situations.

chimps crack oil palm nuts by using two stones as a hammer and anvil

Question 25

Social learning

Answer 25

Learning by observing and mimicking others

Question 26

Social learning: Vervet monkey

Answer 26

about the size of a domestic cat

give acoustically different alarm calls in view of at least three types of predators: leopards, eagles and snakes.

Leopard: loud barking sound –> vervet on the ground run into trees

Eagle: short two-syllable cough –> vervet on the ground look up and run into bushes; vervet in trees look up and may also run down into bushes

Snake: shutter –> Vervets look down

Question 27

Development of alarm call behavior in vervets

Answer 27

Infant vervet monkeys give alarm calls, but in a relatively undiscriminating way. → innate tendency to make alarm calls.

If the infant gives the eagle call when an eagle is overhead, another member of the group will also give the eagle call.

If the infant gives the call when a bee-eater flies by, the adults in the group are silent.

Social learning in alarm call behavior:
- Vervet monkeys have an initial, unlearned tendency to give calls on seeing potentially threatening objects in the environment. Learning fine-tunes the calls so that by adulthood, vervets give calls only in response to genuine danger.

Question 28

What animals learn

Answer 28

Predators
Mates
Familial relationships
Agression

Question 29

What animals learn: predators

Answer 29

Learning about predators has direct fitness consequences.

Learning about possible predation pressure may be beneficial.

Question 30

What animals learn: predators (Damselfly nymphs

Answer 30

Damselfly nymphs and minnows are eaten by pike.

Hypothesis: damselfly nymphs might learn about the potential dangers associated with pike encounters by using chemical cues.

Researchers fed pike predators either minnows, damselflies, or mealworms (control).

After 4 days on one of these three diets, a pike was removed from its tank, and damselflies that had never before had any contact with a pike were exposed to the water from the pike’s tank

Pike + damselfly nymph water –> decrease in foraging activity

Pike + minnow water –> decrease in foraging activity

Pike + worm –> no decrease

• damselfly nymphs with 3 treatments (pike + damselfly, pike + minnow, pike + mealworm)
• isolated them for 2 days.
• Then each damselfly was exposed to water from a pike that had been fed mealworms:
• same reaction –> damselfly nymphs learned to associate pike plus the scent of any potential prey with danger.

Question 31

What animals learn: mates

Answer 31

Mongolian gerbils:
- burrowing desert rodents
- chemical communication during many forms of social exchange, including the formation of pair bonds

Allow pair bonds to form between a male and a female.

Learning may result in long-term fitness benefits

Question 32

What animals learn: familial relationship

Answer 32

Information about:
- How individuals are related to others
- how different individuals in their group are related to one other

Altruistic and cooperative behavior towards close genetic kin

Question 33

What animals learn: familial relationship (long-tailed tit)

Answer 33

common bird found throughout Europe and Asia.
tiny (13–15cm in length, including its 7–9cm tail)
black and white plumage, with variable amounts of grey and pink

Young, reproductively active individuals breed independently, as soon as they can

Most nests fall victim to predation on the young
Breeders often become helpers at the nests of their close genetic kin.

Churr call develops before young birds fledge and leave the nest.

It remains very consistent throughout the lifetime of an individual.

Churrs are given by male and females in the context of short-range communications, such as those regarding nest-building and aggression.

Individual birds showed a strong preference for the calls given by their close genetic kin, staying for a longer time near the speakers that gave off the calls of their kin.

Question 34

Cross fostering experiment (long-tailed tit)

Answer 34

The calls of foster siblings raised together were about as similar as the calls of biological siblings raised together

the calls of biological siblings raised apart were as dissimilar as the calls of unrelated individuals in nature

the songs of foster parents and their foster offspring were similar

Learning is critical for the development of churr calls, that are subsequently used to distinguish kin from nonkin

Question 35

What animals learn: Agression

Answer 35

1. Intrinsic factors: some measure of size
2. Extrinsic factors: winner and loser effects

Winner and loser effect:
- an increased probability of winning an aggressive interaction based on past victories, and an increased probability of losing an aggressive interaction based on past losses.

Question 36

What animals learn: Agression (Pavlovian learning in fish)

Answer 36

Males that had learned to associate a light with the presence of another male were more aggressive when the light cue was present than were males that did not associate the light with the presence of another male.

In the second contest, winners and losers from the first contest were paired with new intruders three days later. No red light was shown.

(A) Males that won in contest 1 were more likely to win in contest 2 (WW) than were males that had lost in contest 1 (LW).

(B) Males that lost in contest 1 were more likely to lose in contest 2 (LL).

Learning may be a powerful force in shaping agressive interactions

Question 37

Culture

Answer 37

is the transmission of learned behavior from one generation to another.

Japanese macaques, for example, developed new methods of food preparation, and these methods were transmitted to other individuals in the population via imitative learning.

Chimpanzees also display culturally transmitted behaviors including tool using and courtship. Populations have distinct behavioral repertoires or culture.