The behaviors of eating, sleeping and crying in animals are innate behaviors that are genetically programmed and not learned. An example of an innate behavior is a fixed action pattern exhibited by parent gulls, which will regurgitate food for their chicks in the same sequence in response to chick tapping, even if the stimulus is removed. Learned behaviors develop through experience and include habituation where an animal stops responding to a stimulus after repeated exposure, as well as conditioning where an association is formed between a stimulus and response through reinforcement.

1. 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.

2. 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?

3. 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

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

5. More Innate Behaviors
When the innate behavior always 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

6. 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?

7. A, D, FNo Tapping
B, C, ETapping
MODELSRESPONSE
A ethologist used different models to represent
the beak of a gull and presented each one in
turn to a chick

9. Do humans exhibit FAPs?

10. 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

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

12. 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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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