ethology: biological aspects of learning
TRANSCRIPT
BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF LEARNING
Prof. S D RathodB N Bandodkar College of Science
Thane, Maharashtra, India
Autoshaping various events are learned by
animals in the nature by experience called as autoshaping.
The dangerous cues are avoided while the friendly cues are accepted.
Learning to avoid enemies
The goose shadow is accepted while the hawk shadow is avoided
Warning signals (innate avoidance behavior)
Freezing posture (Motionless)
E.g. opossum
White tailed deer fawn
Camouflage
Protean display (sudden change in posture to frighten enemy)
MimicryMullerian mimicry Warning coloration of one noxious
species to another
Batesian Mimicry
Mimic resembles a model that is noxious
Batesian Mimicry
Automimicry
Edible monarch butterfly mimic poisonous monarch and hence are not eaten by birds
Mertensian mimicry Similar to Batesian mimicry but it does not
involve bad taste or permit trial and error learning e.g. beefly, grass snake.
Learning to avoid sickness Animals learn to eat food which are
healthy or full of all minerals e.g. sodium deficient rats can learn which food contains salt and select the food which contains more amount of sodium.
A/c to Rozin (1976) Animals classify food into novel, familiar-safe, familiar-dangerous and familiar beneficial food.
Cognitive aspects of learning Are animals conciously aware of
themselves??? Do animals have sense of sorrow and
feel pleasure??? There are several aspects of learning
that cannot be clearly explained by conditioning.
Hidden aspects of conditioning From cognitive point of view during
shaping or conditioning animals might not work mechanically. It is of concern whether animals use their emotions along with their experience to learn the things
In classical conditioning the animal might be pairing the UCS with CS thoughtfully to give CR.
Insight Learning
Animal uses its experience to respond to something new problems. They suddenly resolve the problems and give appropriate response to the situations. The response thus exhibited might be the result of the calculation done before acting on it.
Chimpanzee solving problems
Thank You