Learned Behaviour A result of experience

Classic Conditioning  Pavlov’s Dogs: w/cc.htm Classic conditioning – associating an unrelated stimulus with a reaction. 1 st time – no reaction to bell ringing Subsequent times – salivating to sound of bell

Operant conditioning  Trial and error learning  Reward follows response SUCCESS!!

Examples of operant conditioning  Rat finds the right button that dispenses food  In addition, if it trips the wrong button, it is shocked

Examples of operant conditioning  Child plays. Studies show that children that are allowed to play freely are better problem solvers as adults.  Parental discipline.

Habituation – ignoring stimuli  We respond to stimuli to keep ourselves alive. If no negative (or positive) effects come from reacting to a stimulus, we learn to “get used to it”, or ignore it. This is HABITUATION.

Habituation examples  Living on a main road, you don’t hear the cars as often as a visitor.  Scarecrow works for a day or two, but crows will return to the spot soon.  My dog, Kevin, no longer gets excited by the word “walkies”, as I’ve overused it to get his attention.

Why habituate?  Often responding to stimuli is time and energy-consuming.  Wasting time and energy if responding to unimportant stimuli

Insight  Applying past experience to solving a new problem  Highly developed in humans – can also use others’ experiences to help us to solve new problems  Again, play and experimentation plays a big part in highly developed problem solving skills

Insight example  Chimp in room, bananas hanging from ceiling  Cannot reach by jumping  Stacks boxes to climb, using past play experiences to solve problem

Imprinting  Recognition of a parent from birth/ hatching.  May be an attachment to the “wrong” parent (eg. Another species, even an inanimate object)  Imprinting is very rapid and lasting learning.

Imprinting – Lorenz’ ducklings  Ducklings form attachment to first moving thing they see  Saw Lorenz first – followed him around  Would follow other humans, but not other ducks.

Lorenz’ ducklings  Would court Lorenz and other humans, but not other ducks.  Identified themselves as the same species as Lorenz

Imprinting in Humans  First bond formation between baby and mother is similar to imprinting.  Transferring of bonds when young (through adoption etc) can be very traumatic for child  In hospitals, parents are now encouraged to spend more time with sick babies, in case the baby bonds with nurses instead of a parent

What do we learn from animal behaviour?  Control of animals – domesticated dogs from wolves. Dog owner must present themselves to be the leader of the pack  Looking after animals, on farms and in veterinary clinics  Predicting some effects of environment change/destruction

Activities Complete table in your book. Glossary: classic conditioning, operant conditioning, habituation, insight, imprinting Quick Check questions pg 362