Animal Behavior Module 4

Definition of learning

A change in the capacity for behavior as a result of experience

What does learning exclude?

Fatigue, sensory adaptation, and nervous system maturation

Sole cause of learning

Experience alone

What "experience" includes

Practicing a behavior or exposure to environmental stimuli

Learning as a probability

An increase in the probability that a behavior will occur

Imprinting

Rapid, phase-sensitive learning independent of behavioral consequences

Phase-sensitive learning

Learning occurring exclusively at a specific age or life stage

Critical period

Life phase with heightened sensitivity to compulsory external stimuli

Missed critical period result

Function development becomes difficult, less successful, or impossible

Filial imprinting

Young animal learns behavioral characteristics from its parent

Scientist for filial imprinting

Konrad Lorenz

Lorenz's animal study

Greylag geese

Geese critical period duration

13 to 16 hours shortly after hatching

Lorenz's stimulus

Himself (the first suitable moving stimulus they saw)

Sexual imprinting

Young animal learns characteristics of a desirable mate

Target for male sexual imprinting

The maternal figure

Mallard/Peking study (males)

Male mallards raised by Peking ducks tried to mate with Peking females

Mallard/Peking study (females)

still correctly chose male mallards as mates

Habituation

Decrease in an elicited behavior due to repeated harmless stimulus presentations

Three repeated stimulus outcomes

Habituation, sensitization, or sensitization followed by habituation

Sensitization

Increase in an elicited behavior due to repeated stimulus presentations

Nonspecific mimic of habituation

Fatigue

Harbor seal habituation example

They ignore local fish-eating orcas but flee from mammal-hunting orcas

Adaptive benefit of habituation

Saves energy and cognitive capacity by ignoring harmless stimuli

Cost of non-habituation

Wastes time needed for vital survival actions like feeding/mating

Nonassociative learning

Response change without linking the stimulus to a reward/punishment

Learning type for habituation

Nonassociative learning

Stimulus specificity

Habituation applies only to that exact stimulus; a new one gets a full response

Ground fowl habituation

Young birds stop crouching for safe shapes but still crouch for hawks

Habituation in cognitive research

Habituate animal to one stimulus, introduce a new one to see if they can tell them apart

Songbird territory habituation

Males ignore familiar neighbors' songs but attack a new male's song

Classical conditioning

Learning where a conditioned stimulus (CS) signals an unconditioned stimulus (US)

Alternative classical names

Pavlovian conditioning or Respondent conditioning

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A biologically significant stimulus that naturally elicits a response

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The natural, unlearned response automatically triggered by a US

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An initially neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a learned response

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response triggered by the CS after pairing

Best classical conditioning timing

CS must precede the US and be close to it in time

Extinction (Classical)

Loss of association when the CS no longer reliably signals the US

Core tools of operant conditioning

Reinforcement and punishment

Reinforcement

A consequence that increases the frequency of a behavior

Reinforcer

The specific stimulus that increases a behavior's probability

Positive reinforcement

Adding an appetitive/rewarding stimulus to increase a behavior

Negative reinforcement

Removing an aversive stimulus to increase a behavior

Punishment

A consequence that decreases the frequency of a behavior

Positive punishment

Adding an aversive stimulus to decrease a behavior

Text example of positive punishment

Rubbing a puppy's nose in its poop after an accident

Negative punishment

Removing an appetitive/rewarding stimulus to decrease a behavior

Text example of negative punishment

Taking away a child's toy after they misbehave

Proximity rule for conditioning

Events must happen close together in time to be mentally linked

Extinction (Operant)

Drop in behavior frequency due to receiving no consequences at all

Shaping

Gradually changing an existing response toward a new target behavior by rewarding small steps

Successive approximations

Increasingly accurate steps of a target behavior that are reinforced during shaping

Reinforcement schedule

The frequency pattern at which behavior rewards occur

Continuous reinforcement

Rewarding a behavior every single time it occurs

When to use continuous reinforcement

Best for starting or shaping a behavior

Fixed Ratio Schedule

Reinforcement occurs after a set, fixed number of correct responses

Fixed ratio response rate

Very high response rates because the animal controls the reward speed

Variable Ratio Schedule

Reinforcement occurs after a random, unpredictable number of responses

Latent learning

Learning that happens without immediate reward and remains hidden until needed

Seward's rat study

Rats exploring an empty T-maze later learned where food was much faster

Social learning

Learning by observing, retaining, and replicating a conspecific's behavior

Lemon shark social study

Naive sharks learn to find food faster when paired with experienced sharks

Stimulus enhancement

Inadvertent attraction to an object because a conspecific is interacting with it

Stimulus enhancement example

Rats learning about good local foods by smelling another rat's breath

Local enhancement

Inadvertent attraction to a location because a conspecific is present there

Local enhancement example

Vultures landing at a site because they see a group of vultures gathered on the ground

Observational conditioning

Classical conditioning via watching a conspecific's emotional reaction to a stimulus

Observational conditioning example

Primates developing a fear of snakes by watching other primates panic around them

Goal-directed emulation

Learning the goal of an action from a model, but using one's own physical method

Bearded vulture emulation

Youth learn adults drop bones to break them, but take 7 years to master the physical flight technique

Imitation

Observing and copying the exact physical actions of a model

Japanese macaque imitation

A female named Imo washed sweet potatoes; the exact technique spread to the troop

Tradition

A learned behavior stable in a population, passed down across generations

Two phases of song learning

Sensory learning and sensorimotor learning

Sensory learning phase

Sensorimotor learning phase

Song sparrow sensory timing

Must hear its species' song during its first autumn

Song sparrow sensorimotor rule

Practices the next spring; doesn't need to hear others but must hear itself

Is learning heritable?

The specific behaviors are not heritable, but the genetic capacity to learn is

Hippocampus in food-hoarders

Enlarged and significantly more developed than in non-hoarders

Detour behavior

Ability to find an alternate route to a goal when the direct path is blocked

Portia spider cognitive trick

Navigates detours to reach prey webs, then mimics trapped bugs to lure them out

Hauser tool definition

An object modified to fit a purpose to cause environmental change

Inflexible tool use

Fixed, unadaptable tool use (e.g., Archerfish spitting water bullets)

Metatools

Tools used to handle or obtain other tools

Crow metatool experiment

Used a short stick to retrieve a long stick from a box, then used long stick to get food