E.3 Innate and Learned Behavior

Innate behavior is behavior which normally occurs in all members of a species despite natural variation in environmental influences

Some texts refer to innate behavior as species-specific behavior

Example: most migration in birds

Learned behavior develops as the result of experience; involves the CNS which is more difficult to investigate

E3.1 Distinguish between innate and learned behavior

E.3.2 Design experiments to investigate innate behavior in invertebrates, including either a taxis or a kinesis.

E.3.3 Analyze data from invertebrate behavior experiments in terms of the effect on chances of survival and reproduction

• Animals must orient themselves by tracking stimuli in their environment in order to travel, feed, and move from one place to another • The movement toward (positive) or away (negative) from a stimulus is called taxis

• Not all responses, however, involve a specific orientation with some animals becoming more or less active with increases in stimulus

• These responses are called kineses; more random and depend on intensity and not direction of the stimulus

• Innate behavior patterns develop independently of the environmental context (subject to debate)*.

• They are controlled by genes and are inherited from parents.

• They develop by natural selection, because they make members of a species better adapted to their environment and increase their chances of survival and reproduction.

• taxes and kineses are behavior patterns that increase the survival chances of many invertebrates.

*Campbell, pg. 1054, Raven, pg. 1108

Some examples include:

Taxes

• Flatworms move towards food (positive chemotaxis)

• Euglena move towards light (positive phototaxis)

• Housefly larvae are negatively phototaxic after eating ensuring that they remain in an area where they are harder to detect from predators

Earthworms are also negatively phototaxic to protect themselves from dessication.

Kineses

• Sowbugs or woodlice become more active in dry areas and less active in humid ones which tends to keep them in moist environments (more favorable)

E. 3.4 Discuss how the process of learning can improve the chance of survival

• There are many situations where survival chances can be increased as the result of learning • In the process of learning, an animal will change its behavior according to changing circumstances • An animal may learn to recognize that the warning call or behavior from individuals of another species is to be followed by the appearance of a predator

Birds learn to avoid the evil-tasting black and orange caterpillars of the cinnabar moth by conditioning.

• Grizzly bears learn by operant conditioning how to catch salmon.

• Goslings learn who their mother is by imprinting and so avoid predators by remaining close to her.

E.3.5 Outline Pavlov’s experiments into conditioning of dogs

• Ivan Pavlov investigated the salivation reflex in dogs. • He observed that dogs secreted saliva when they saw or tasted food. The sight or taste of meat is called the unconditioned stimulus • The secretion of saliva is called the unconditioned response.

• Pavlov then gave the dogs a neutral stimulus, such as the sound of ringing bell or ticking metronome, before he gave the unconditioned stimulus - the sight or taste of food.

• He found that, after repeating this procedure for a few days, the dogs started to secrete saliva before they have received the unconditioned stimulus.

• The sound of the bell or the metronome is called the conditioned stimulus and the secretion of saliva before the unconditioned stimulus is the conditioned response.

• The dogs had learned to associate two external stimuli - the sound of a bell or metronome and the arrival of food. This is called classical conditioning

E.3.6 Outline the role of inheritance and learning in the development of birdsong in young birds.

• Birds have a genetic template, or instinctive program, that guides them to learn the appropriate song. • During a critical period of development, the template will accept the correct song as a model • Thus, song acquisition depends on learning, but only the song of the correct species can be learned • The genetic template for learning is selective • In the white-crowned sparrow’s song there are 2 learning processes

• First, the bird must acquire a song type by hearing an adult, and then it must learn to match this song by listening to itself

• White-crowned sparrows raised in isolation in soundproof chambers developed abnormal songs that had only a slight resemblance to the normal adult song

• The crude, undeveloped song is the template upon which the full song is developed and is acquired through hearing an adult during the critical period of development

• If the sparrows were exposed to taped songs of other species, they did not develop that song indicating that innate, or developmentally fixed, influences are present.

• Additional experiments have shown that birds more than 50 days old that are living with other bird species will learn the song of that species because social interaction is a stronger stimulus than exposure to taped songs.

• Cuckoos, however, lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species and have no opportunity to learn the cuckoo song.

• The cuckoo song they later sing is innate since they do not sing the song of the bird species they nest with.