1. A4: Innate and Learned Behaviour

2. Innate Behaviour
Develops independently of the environmental context; it’s in the genes and is inherited!
(Nature – not nurture)
A behaviour that occurs in all members of a species including young and inexperienced animals.
Genes controlling innate behaviour are naturally selected.

3. Innate Behaviour Ex: Infants, suckling, grasping objects
Ex: Birds migrating south
Ex: Spiders spinning a web correctly the first time.

4. Taxes and Kinesis (movement) responses to stimuli
Taxes and Kinesis are examples of innate behaviour
TAXES: directional response to stimuli
KINESIS: nondirectional response to stimuli

5. Taxes Stimulus: light, sound, electricity, chemicals
Ex: Euglena is a photosynthetic, motile, unicellular organism.
It will move toward light
This is a positive phototaxis
(If an organism moved away from light, that would be a negative phototaxis)

6. Types of Taxis Chemotaxis: response to chemicals in the environment
I.e.: pH levels, drugs, food, pesticides…
Phototaxis: response to light
Gravitaxis: response to gravity
Rheotaxis: response to water current
Thigmotaxis: a response to touch

7. Kinesis
Stimuli: gas levels, humidity, air pressure, ambient temperature….
The rate of movement of the animal depends on the intensity of the stimuli and not it’s directional
Ex: Woodlice are know to show kinesis to humidity
They dry out if they remain in dry conditions
They move faster and turn around more often in dry conditions than in damp ones (because they are trying to get out of the uncomfortable dry environment)

8. Learned Behaviour Is the result of an experience
It is not inherited, and not controlled by genes.
Not the result of natural selection.
It’s nurture, not nature.
Develops by response to an environmental stimulus

9. Learned Behaviour
Offspring learn behaviour patterns from their parents and other individuals in their environment.
Ex: humans and language
An animal will repeat a particular behaviour if it is rewarded by it.
Learned behaviours also depend on genes (humans can’t talk without the presence of specific language genes)
Learned behaviours develop because of the result of the experience and innate behaviours develop independent of it.

10. Birdsong Example of a behaviour that is both innate and learned
Singing is a genetic trait of birds – an innate behaviour
Song birds will sing a simple song if not taught by other birds
However, through experience, they can expand their song (from hearing other birds or other noise devices)
(skip to 0:40 if short on time)

11. Reflex Conditioning
Reflex conditioning involves forming new associations by establishing new neural pathways in the brain.
Conditioned reflexes are used extensively in animal behaviours and can greatly increase survival chances.
Ex: Birds have an innate reflex to avoid food with bitter tastes, but need to learn which insects will have that taste.
If they eat a black and yellow striped bug that is bitter, it will learn to avoid eating them.

12. Pavlov’s Dog
1920’s: psychologist Ivan Pavlov conducted experiments on conditioned behaviours.
Premise:
Animals salivate when they smell or taste or see food.
Question:
Can a behaviour such as salivation be conditioned?

13. Pavlov’s Experiments
When a dog smells or tastes or sees food, it will automatically salivate.
The food is an unconditioned stimuli.
In his experiment, Pavlov would ring a bell every time he’d feed his dogs.
The dogs would become conditioned to associate the sound of the ringing with food.

14. Pavlov’s Experiment
As a result, after continuing this pattern, the dogs would salivate every time they heard a bell ring – even when food was not provided – because they anticipated food.
Hence, they were conditioned to salivate.
Office clip:

16. Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning is a form of learning which consists of trial and error experiences.
Reflex conditioning is initiated by the environment imposing a stimulus on the animal.
Operant conditioning is initiated by an animal spontaneously testing out a behaviour pattern and finding out what its consequences are.
The behaviour is reinforced or inhibited based on the consequence.

17. Operant Conditioning
Ex: Lambs learn not to touch electric fencing by operant conditioning.
Big Bang Theory

18. Imprinting
Imprinting is learning occurring at a particular life stage and is independent of the consequences of behaviour.
Famous example of imprinting comes from scientist Konrad Lorenz who in the 1930s experimented with greylag geese and their goslings.

19. Imprinting Eggs are normally incubated by their mother.
When the eggs hatch, their mother is the first large moving object they see.
The goslings follow their mother around during the first few weeks of life and she leads them to food and protects them.
The goslings have imprinted on their mother.

20. Imprinting
Lorenz showed that when young geese are hatched in an incubator, their mother isn’t the first large moving object they see.
So they attach themselves to another large, moving object.
This could be another bird, another animal, or even a human
The attachment is “imprinting”.

22. Imprinting
For the greylag geese, imprinting occurs hours after hatching.
Note: Imprinting is independent of the consequences of the behaviour.
Animals remain imprinted on something even if it does not increase their chance of survival.

23. Learning Learning is the acquisition of skill or knowledge.
The behaviour of animals changes during a lifetime.
Some behaviour patterns are lost (palmar grasp reflex of infants) and many more a learned.
Learning is a higher order function of the brain and humans have a greater capacity to learn than any other species.
The degree of learning is dependent on their longevity, their neural capacity, their experiences, and their social interactions.

24. Research Methods in Animal Behaviour
Laboratory experiments and field investigations have helped in the understanding of different types of behaviour and learning.
With laboratory experiments, variables can be controlled more effectively and innate behaviours in particular can be investigated well.
However, animals often do not behave normally when removed from their environment, especially with learned behaviours.

25. Invertebrate Behaviour Experiment
In 2 weeks, in small groups, we will be observing and analyzing the behaviour of invertebrates in response to a stimulus.
You will be observing either a taxis (a directional response to a stimulus) or a kinesis (a change in the rate of movement)
The organisms you will be working with….

26. Planaria (Dugesia tigrina)
Flatworms living in lakes or ponds.
Quite active
They have a simple nervous system, and two eye spots (photoreceptors)
Also have chemoreceptors

27. Earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris)
Sensitive mechanoreceptors.
Does not have eyes, but do have photoreceptors

28. Water Flea (Daphnia magna)
Very sensitive to changes in water temperature and pH.
Their heart beat can be seen by observing contractions of their body under a microscope or a magnifying lens.

29. Euglena acus Protists. Photosynthetic (have photoreceptors!)
Have a flagellum