animal behavior Flashcards
the way an organism reacts to stimuli in its environment
behavior
Behaviors that are controlled by genes do what if they help the organism survive?
they become more common and spread through a population
Behaviors that are controlled by genes do what if they harm an organism’s chance of survival?
they become less common through a population
behaviors that organisms are born with and are fully functional the first time they are displayed (3 terms)
innate
instinctive
inborn
behaviors acquired through an animal’s life, through experience
learned behaviors
Name the four major types of learning.
- habituation
- classical conditioning
- operant conditioning
- insight learning
when an animal decreases its response to a stimulus when it is neither rewarded or punished
habituation
a stimulus produces a response through association with a positive or a negative experience
classical conditioning
an animal learns to behave a certain way through repeated practice with either a reward or punishment (trial and error learning)
operant learning
the highest form of learning, application of what has been learned in one situation to a totally new situation
insight learning
What is the most famous historical example of classical conditioning ?
Pavlov’s dogs salivating to a bell
What is the most famous historical example of operant conditioning?
Skinner’s box where animals got food for the right behavior and shocked for the incorrect behavior
when an animal recognizes the first thing it sees, smells, hears…
imprinting
when baby geese and ducks follow the first moving thing they see
imprinting
when salmon recognize the smell of the stream they hatched in and go back there to spawn
imprinting
