LEARNING ESTABLISHES SPECIFIC LINKS
BETWEEN EXPERIENCE AND BEHAVIOR
Chapter 51, Section 2
August 31, 2015
INNATE BEHAVIOR
Definition: animal behavior that is developmentally fixed and
under strong genetic control.
 Exhibited in virtually the same form by all individuals in a
population despite internal and external environmental
differences during development and throughout their lifetimes.
 Examples: Fixed action patterns, reflexes, instinct, etc.

EXPERIENCE AND BEHAVIOR


Tinbergen’s second question: How does the animal’s experience during
growth and development influence the response?
One approach to this question is a cross-fostering study, in which the young
of one species are placed in the care of adults form another species.

The extent to which the offspring’s behavior changes provides a measure of how the
social and physical environment influences behavior.
Example: Male
California mice
and White-footed
mice
LEARNING OVERVIEW

Definition: the modification of behavior as a result of specific
experiences.
Capacity of learning depends on nervous system organization
established during development following instructions encoded in
the genome.
 Learning itself involves the formation of memories by specific
changes in neuronal connectivity.


The essential challenge for research into learning is
not the decide between nature and nurture, but
rather to explore the contributions of both nature
and nurture in shaping learning and behavior.
LEARNING: IMPRINTING
The ability of offspring to recognize
and be recognized by a parent is
essential for survival.
 Imprinting: the establishment of a
long-lasting behavioral response to a
particular individual or object.
 Example: Graylag geese (Lorenz)
 Example: Whooping crane

https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=ihh1xBX
wt_0
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=uurnNrljbw
LEARNING: SPATIAL
LEARNING
An organism’s fitness may
be enhanced by the
capacity for spatial
learning, the
establishment of a memory
that reflects the
environment’s spatial
structure.
 Example: female digger
wasp
Experiment

Nest
Pinecone
Results
Nest
No nest
LEARNING: ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING

Definition: the ability to associate one environmental feature
with another.

Example: Blue jays and monarch butterflies
Classical conditioning: an arbitrary stimulus becomes associated
with a particular outcome.
 Operant conditioning: an animal first learns to associate one of
its behaviors with a reward or punishment and then tends to
repeat or avoid that behavior.

https://www.y
outube.com/w
atch?v=MOgo
wRy2WC0
LEARNING: COGNITION AND PROBLEM SOLVING

The most complex forms of learning involve cognitionthe process of knowing that involves awareness, reasoning,
recollection, and judgment.


The information-processing ability of a nervous system
can also be revealed in problem solving, the cognitive
activity of devising a method to proceed from on state to
another r in the face or obstacles.

https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=AVaITA7e
BZE
Example: Bees and the Y-shaped maze
Example: Ravens and the food hanging by a string
LEARNING: SOCIAL LEARNING

Definition: type of learning through
observing others
Example:Young wild chimpanzees
 Example: Vervet monkeys in Amboseli
National Park


Culture is a system of information
transfer through observation or teaching
that influences behavior of individuals in
a population.

Culture can alter behavior and influence
the fitness of individuals.
SELECTION FOR INDIVIDUAL SURVIVAL AND
REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS CAN EXPLAIN
DIVERSE BEHAVIORS
Chapter 51, Section 3
August 31, 2015-Septermber 1, 2015
OVERVIEW

Tinbergen’s third question: how behavior enhances survival and
reproduction in a population.


The focus shifts from proximate causation- the “how” questions- to
ultimate causation- the “why” questions.
Food-obtaining behavior, or foraging, includes not only eating
but also any activities an animal used to search for, recognize,
and capture food items.
EVOLUTION OF FORAGING BEHAVIOR

Variation in a gene called
forager (for) dictates how
far Drosophila larvae travel
when foraging.



Larvae carrying the forR
allele travel far.
Larvae carrying the forS
allele do not travel far.
Larvae populations kept at a low density foraged over
shorter distances than those in populations kept at high
density.


The forR allele frequency increased in the high-density groups.
The forS allele frequency increased in the low-density groups.
OPTIMAL FORAGING MODEL
Foraging behavior is a compromise between the benefits of
nutrition and the costs of obtaining food.
 According to this optimal foraging model, natural selection
should favor a foraging behavior that minimizes the costs of
foraging and maximizes the benefits.

Costs
•Energy Expenditure
•Risk of Predation
VS.
Benefit
Obtain enough food
to survive/reproduce
BALANCING RISK AND REWARD

One of the most significant potential costs to a forager is risk of
predation.


Maximizing energy gain and minimizing energy costs are of little
benefit if the behavior causes the forager to be preyed upon.
Example: Mule deer that live in the mountains of western
North America