Innate & Learned Behaviours Flashcards
What is an example of a simple behavioural response to a stimulus?
Reflex arc
How is the pain reflex moderated/ controlled?
By the spinal cord (rather than the brain)
What is the neural pathway of a reflex arc?
- Action potential stimulates an effector (muscle/ gland)
- Involves a sensory neuron, stimulated by sensory cells, trigger motor neuron that is connected to an effector
- generates a response
What are the 3 neurons involved in a reflex arc?
Sensory neurons
Motor neurons
Relay neurons
How does the reflex arc work?
Receptor cells detect stimulus from enviro
Sensory neurons connect recptor to CNS
relay neurons co-ordinate response
Synpases join neurons to other neurons or the effector
Motor neurons connect CNS to effector
Effector takes action
What are the 8 sense organs?
- Hearing ( Auditory)
- Vision( Visual)
- Taste ( Gustation)
- Smell ( Olfactory)
- Touch ( Tactile)
- Thermal
- Electro
- Magnetic
What are photoreceptors for?
Response to light (vision)
What are Thermoreceptors for?
Response to thermal energy (heat)
What are Chemoreceptors for?
Response to chemicals (taste, smell)
What are Hygroreceptors for?
Response to humidity
What are magnetoreceptors for?
To detect and respond to the magnetic field
What are Electroreceptors for?
To detect and response to electric impulses and fields
What is an example of an innate behaviour?
Reflex arc Fixed Action Patterns (FAP) Suckling in newborns Imprinting Hunting
What is kinesis?
Changes in activity of movement in response to stimulus
What is Taxis?
Orientated movement towards or away from a stimulus
What is positive and negative phototaxis?
Positive phototaxis = movement TOWARDS a light
Negative phototaxis = movement AWAY from a light
What are instincts?
an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour in animals in response to certain stimuli.
What are some examples of instincts?
yawning
newly hatched turtles searching for water
Scratching an itch
Being afraid of heights (?)
What causes innate behaviours?
Natural selection
How does natural selection cause innate behaviours?
Favourable behaviours give individuals a survival and reproductive advantage
Have genetic basis that is passed on and proliferates in population
Can change over time
What is a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
An instinctive stereotypical behaviour / behavioural repertoire sequence – once initiated, almost always gets completed.
Are FAPs innate or learned?
innate
What is an example of a FAP?
Greylag Geese:
- if egg rolls out of nest, female will instinctively use her bill to push eggs back into the nest (won’t stop until completed)
What causes FAPs
Neural networks - innate releasing mechanism triggered in response to an external sensory stimulus (a ‘sign stimulus’ in animal behaviours)
