Start-Up: List some behaviors of your pet (if you don’t have a pet, list some behaviors of an animal you like). Identify the immediate and ultimate cause of at least one of those behaviors.

Animal Behavior Behavior has to be either: Learned Ex. Learning how to properly attack and kill prey Or Innate (not learned; genetically programmed) Ex. eating, sleeping, crying How do you tell if a behavior is learned or if it is innate?

Innate Behaviors Taxis – directed movement toward or away from a stimulus Can be positive (+) or negative (-)‏ Phototaxis – movement toward or away from light + Phototaxis – toward light Example: plant bending toward sun - Phototaxis – away from light Example: cockroach running for cover when lights are turned on

Geotaxis – movement toward or away from gravity + Geotaxis – movement toward gravity Example: plant roots - Geotaxis – movement away from gravity Example: tree growing taller

More Innate Behaviors When the innate behavior alway s occurs the same way regardless of the stimulus it is called a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)‏ The behavior will continue to completion even if the stimulus is taken away Example of a Fixed Action Pattern

1. Parent gull eats food at sea 2. Returns to nest 3. Chick taps the side of the parent’s beak 4. Tapping action causes the parent to open its mouth 5. Chick places head in parent’s mouth 6. Parent regurgitates some of its food for the chick to eat FAP Another example in gulls… How do parents feed their chicks?

A ethologist used different models to represent the beak of a gull and presented each one in turn to a chick A, D, F No Tapping B, C, E Tapping MODELS RESPONSE

Do humans exhibit FAPs?

More Innate Behaviors Rhythmic behavior – regularly repeated behavior that is synchronized to rhythmic changes in the environment -controlled by organism’s internal “biological clock” Examples: Daytime (diurnal) or Nightime (nocturnal) activity Migration – seasonal or non-seasonal

Watch the video and tell me if the behavior you are watching is innate or learned. How can you tell?

Learned Behavior Habituation – a change in an animal’s behavior resulting from experience Example: hydra jerk when touched But it eventually stops responding after awhile

Hissing Cockroaches! Hiss when touched (defense mechanism)‏ But it eventually stops after awhile Then what’s the point of habituation?

More Learned Behavior Imprinting – learning that is limited to a specific time period in an animal’s life and that is usually irreversible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGBqQyZid04

Insight – ability to respond appropriately to a new situation without previous experience by basing the solution on prior knowledge Ex. Pigeon-box-banana video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDntbGRPeEU&feature=related

More Learned Behavior Conditioning – learning that a particular stimulus or response is linked to a reward or punishment 1. Classical – otherwise meaningless stimulus is associated with a certain response Example: Pavlov’s dogs Other examples: -associating a certain song to a particular time in your life -associating a smell to a place

Example of Learned Behavior 2. Operant Conditioning – “trial and error” Example: Skinner’s Box and pigeon ping pong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQtDTdDr8vs&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGazyH6fQQ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtfQlkGwE2U&feature=related