BIOLOGY 1M03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: European Herring Gull, Conditioned Taste Aversion, Big Brown Bat
29 Jun 2018
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Behaviour (Chapter 51) InstinctLearning continuum
Development of Behaviour
Instinct: “A behaviour pattern that reliably develops in individuals that receive
adequate nutrition and that is given in functional form on its first performance”
Learning: “A durable and usually adaptive change in an animal’s behaviour
traceable to experience by that individual”
Pink Cockatoo and Galah. both like to nest in holes in trees. Nest at same time, live
in same habitat. Sometimes, lay eggs in same nest because don’t meet. But when
do meet, larger bird will win but pink cockatoo will raise the other one’s eggs
Call Types:
Begging calls – begging for food from parents
Alarm calls – given in presence of predator
Contact calls – maintain associations with parents/flock when mobile
3 kinds of calls in these birds. First 2 calls are very important to be available to
chicks early on life. Don’t really need contact calls when you are young – learning
more important for this one probably
Results of a natural experiment:
Galah chick raised by pink cockatoos Galah Alarm call. Even though thye are rasied
by Pink Cockatoo, it gives Galah alarm call and begging call instinctively
Contact Calls
Contact calls reflect PC calls; they have learned contact calls from their parents
Types of Learning
Habituation: “repeated stimulae without appropriate feedback or unimportant
stimulae”, basically getting used to things
Ex: when chick first hatched, anything flying over is scary and will hunker down.
Eventually, learns that non -predatory bird or leaves are not important stimuli.
Becomes habituated to those. Still ducks down when hawk flies by
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• Imprinting: structured learning – critical periods, Life-long learning – often involves
mating. Example: Conrad Lawrence has geese following him. He was the first moving
object they saw so they imprinted on him and follow him around because think he’s
their parent
Associative Learning: Association of stimulae o Classical conditioning -- Pavlov’s
dogs
oPavlov’s dog trained so before it’s fed, bell is rung. Cues to dog that food is
coming and he salivates before food appears. Operant conditioning can be v
quick. Ex: toad eating centipede, but that one is poisonous. Will never go for that
type of food again. Insight learning not restricted to human beings. Ex: Burke
Heinbrig? Experiment Studies ravens and their behavior. Meat tied to string and
hanging from branch. Raven gradually moves piece of meat up. Never been in
this situation before Used insight learning. Ex: Caledonian crow – tool using
animal. Makes tools. Using a tool to pick out the larva. Can present new
materials to them and they will make new tools using insight learning
Insight Learning: correct behavior on first try (by reasoning, not instinct)
Naïve New Caledonia Crow. Crow bends tool to obtain reward. Never been in this
situation before
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Instinct: a behaviour pattern that reliably develops in individuals that receive adequate nutrition and that is given in functional form on its first performance . Learning: a durable and usually adaptive change in an animal"s behaviour traceable to experience by that individual . Pink cockatoo and galah. both like to nest in holes in trees. Nest at same time, live in same habitat. Sometimes, lay eggs in same nest because don"t meet. But when do meet, larger bird will win but pink cockatoo will raise the other one"s eggs. Begging calls begging for food from parents. Alarm calls given in presence of predator. Contact calls maintain associations with parents/flock when mobile. 3 kinds of calls in these birds. First 2 calls are very important to be available to chicks early on life. Don"t really need contact calls when you are young learning more important for this one probably. Galah chick raised by pink cockatoos galah alarm call.
