Weel 3: learning Flashcards
Learning
Is the modification of behavior based on experience
Experience–> storing information (memory) –> modification of behavior
Learning enables animals to respond to environmental conditions
Male thynnine wasps
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
The adaptive value of learning
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
Types of learning
Habituation
Imprinting
Spatial learning
Associative learning
Problem solving
Social learning
Habituation
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
Gibbons
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.
Habituation in Java Gibbons
A mother becomes a bridge for her young to cross by grabbing branches of two adjacent trees.
Imprinting
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
Bonding
During the sensitive period
The young: learn the basic behaviours of their species
The parent: learns to recognise its offspring
How do the young know on whom or what to imprint?
- 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.
Operation migration
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.
Spatial learning
Using landmarks to learn the spatial structure of the environment
Spatial learning in digger wasps
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
Cognitive mapping
An internal representation of the spatial relationships among objects in the environment
Associative learning
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.
- 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! - Operant conditioning:
- association between the consequences of behaviours and voluntary actions
The salivary condtitioning of Pavlov’s dog
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)
Classical conditioning
Pavlovian conditioning = neutral stimulus becomes associated with a reflex
US + CS –> CR
Unconditioned Stimulus
Environmental stimulus
Not associated with previous conditioning
Unconditioned Reflex
Innate
biological relevant
requires no learning
conditioned stimulus
a previously neutral stimulus now associated with a reflex
conditioned reflex
learned through conditioning
Operant conditioning
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.
Skiner’s box
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.
Problem solving
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
Social learning
Learning by observing and mimicking others
Social learning: Vervet monkey
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
Development of alarm call behavior in vervets
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.
What animals learn
Predators
Mates
Familial relationships
Agression
What animals learn: predators
Learning about predators has direct fitness consequences.
Learning about possible predation pressure may be beneficial.
What animals learn: predators (Damselfly nymphs
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.
What animals learn: mates
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
What animals learn: familial relationship
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
What animals learn: familial relationship (long-tailed tit)
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.
Cross fostering experiment (long-tailed tit)
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
What animals learn: Agression
- Intrinsic factors: some measure of size
- 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.
What animals learn: Agression (Pavlovian learning in fish)
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
Culture
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.
