*Behavior: Anything an animal does in response to a stimulus in its environment
*Many behaviors have adaptive value, they allow the animal to survive (caring for young, finding shelter, finding mates, avoiding predators, etc)
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Innate/Inherited Behaviors |
Learned Behaviors |
| Inherited | Learned |
| Automatic | Behavior comes about through practice or experience |
| Reflex and Fight-or-Flight are examples | Ex: habituation, imprinting, trial & error, conditioning (see below) |
| Instinct is a complex pattern of innate behaviors | |
| Ex: courtship rituals, hibernation, estivation, migration, mammals suckle, baby sea turtles finding their way to the sea | Ex: humans learning to speak |
Habituation: occurs when an animal is repeatedly given a stimulus that is not associated with punishment or reward, animal becomes habituated when it finally quits responding to that stimulus
Imprinting: form of learning where an animal forms a social attachment to another (ex. baby bird recognizing mother)
Conditioning: learning by association (famous experiment- Pavlov's Dogs)
1.) Dog salivates when presented with food (unconditioned response)
2.) Ring a bell each time dog is presented with food (bell is conditioned response)
3.) Eventually, dog will salivate when only a bell is sounded
