Chapter 34-1
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Years ago, biologists in
Koshima, Japan, left sweet
potatoes on a sandy beach to
get the local Macaque
monkeys out into the open
One day, a small female
monkey washed her sandcovered potato in a nearby
pool of water
Eventually more monkeys
(including her mother) began
washing their potatoes in the
pool of water
Generations later, this learned
behavior is still practiced by
all of the macaque monkeys
living on the island of
Koshima
These macaque monkeys
from Japan have learned
to wash the sand off their
food before eating
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Behavior - the way an organism
reacts to changes in its internal
OR external environment
• May be simple or complex
• Ex: Turning your head to a noise,
stomach rumbling when you smell
food
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Stimulus - any signal that can
be detected and carries
information
• The five senses take in stimuli
(plural)
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Stimulus = heat
Response = letting go
Response - A single, specific
reaction to a stimulus
• A behavior may consist of more
than one response
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Not all organisms have the
same “Senses”
• Sharks have electroreceptors
in their nose to detect the
electricity of heartbeats in fish
• Bats hear high frequency noise
produced from echo-location to
find their food
• Bees can see UV light on
flowers
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Responses involve complex
communication between the
body systems
• The Nervous System(senses)
take in the information and use
it to stimulate the Muscular
System into a response
Behavior is just as
important to survival as
physical characteristics
 Many behaviors are
influenced or controlled
by genes and are
therefore inherited
 Natural selection acts on
beneficial behaviors for a
species the same way it
acts on physical traits
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• If the behavior helps the
species survive and
reproduce, the gene will be
passed on to future
generations
 Innate
behavior - also
called instinct or inborn
behavior
 These behaviors are fully
functional the first time
they are performed
• There is no learning period
 Examples:
• Spiders building webs
• Weaver birds building
hanging nests
 When
animals alter their
behavior as a result of
experience, it’s called
learning
 The four major types of
learning are
1. Habituation
2. Classical Conditioning
3. Operant Conditioning
4. Insight Learning
The simplest of learning
types
 The process by which an
animal decreases or stops its
response to a stimulus that
neither rewards nor harms
the animal
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• Allows animals to spend their
time and energy more efficiently
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Example: an animal no longer
running away from humans
after learning that their
presence won’t help or hurt
them
This deer is no longer
afraid of humans because
it has learned they will
neither hurt nor help it
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A learned behavior in which
an animal makes a mental
connection between a
stimulus and some kind of
reward or punishment
Example: Pavlov’s Dog
• He rang a bell and gave the dog
Pavlov’s Dog has learned
that the bell means food
and therefore salivates
when it hears the bell
a treat
• After repeated trials, the dog
made a mental connection
between the bell and food
• After a while, ringing the bell
was enough to make the dog
salivate even when no food was
present
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Example 2: You guys pack up
the second the bell rings
whether it’s a double period
or not
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Practice makes perfect
Learning a behavior through
repeated practice in order to
receive a reward or avoid
punishment
Also called trial-and-error
learning
• Most trials lead to error but
occasionally a reward or
punishment occurs
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Example: The Skinner Box
• An animal accidently pushes a
lever in a cage and receives food
• Eventually the animal learns that
pushing the lever on purpose
delivers food
Skinner box
The most complex form of
learning
 Involves applying a learned
concept to a NEW situation
WITHOUT a trial-and-error
period
 Example: Once you learn how
to perform long division, you
can apply the knowledge to new
questions on a test
 Example 2: The monkeys to the
left have figured out how to get
bananas by stacking boxes
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Imprinting (mimicking)
keeps young animals close to
their mother by combining
instinct with a learned
behavior
Example: Baby geese learn to
recognize and follow the first
moving object they see
during a critical time
Imprinting can occur with
odor and sounds in addition
to sights
• Newly hatched salmon imprint
on the odor of the stream in
which they were hatched. This
allows them to find it later so
they can spawn as adults
These baby Geese have
learned to follow the
first moving object they
saw