Animal Behavior

1
Animal Behavior

• Mrs. Rightler

2
Methods of Study

• Comparative psychology
• Ethology
• Behavioral ecology
• Sociobiology

3
Instinct

• Basic set of behaviors present at birth
• May need a trigger
• Behavior improves or changes with experience

4
Maturation

• Behavior seen after a period of development has
  occurred
• Improvement or change not based on experience but
  on time
• Ex. Tadpole swimming techniques

5
Imprinting

• Konrad Lorenz
• Critical time period ONLY
• Young animal develops attachment to another
  animal or object
• Rapid learning

6
Learning
7
Habituation

• Animal trained to ignore stimuli
• Dog examples

8
Classical Conditioning

• Pavlovs dog
• Animal learns to respond to particular stimuli
• Basic obedience training

9
Instrumental Conditioning

• Trial-and-error learning
• Skinner Box
• Behavior can be shaped

10
Latent Learning

• Exploratory learning
• No obvious reward
• Helps animal learn about its surroundings

11
Insight Learning

• Animal uses experiences and thinking to solve
  problems.
• Tool use
• Primates

12
Behavior is Controlled by

• Nervous system
• Endocrine system
• Organizational effects
• Activational effects

13
Animal Communication

• Transfer of information from one animal to the
  other (both must be mutually adapted)
• Visual
• Auditory
• Tacticle
• Chemical