Genetic Influences in Animal Behavior

Genetic Influences in Animal Behavior

• Genes significantly influence animal behaviors, including insect mating, bird behavior (courtship, nesting, brood-rearing, songs, flight, nutcracking, and nut-burying),
• Animals are born "knowing" how to perform certain actions.
• Behavioral geneticists have found evidence of a genetic influence on many human behaviors: schizophrenia, alcoholism, sleep disorders, depression, sexual orientation, intelligence, and personality traits.

The Nature Versus Nurture Debate

• One extreme view asserts that all animal behavior is instinctive, with limited room for learning.
• Children are born as "blank slates," and their actions are shaped by experiences.
• Intelligence is debated, highlighting the interplay of nature (genes) and nurture (environment).
• Some believe intelligence is primarily determined by genes (nature), while others emphasize the environment's role in fostering learning, reading, and hard work (nurure).

Heritability

• Heritability has two definitions:
  • A statistical definition, representing the proportion of phenotypic variance attributable to genetic variance.
  • A more common definition, assessing the extent to which genetic differences contribute to observed behavioral differences.
• Environmentability is the proportion of phenotypic variance attributable to environmental variance.
• The heritability of most human behaviors falls within the range of 30 to 60%.
• Environmental factors account for the remaining 40 to 70% of observed behavioral differences.

Learning and Animal Behavior

• Learning can occur at any age, from other animals or through experience and observation of the environment.
• Two basic learning types are associative and non-associative.

Associative Learning

• Learning that occurs with a connection (association) to a positive or negative stimulus.
• Classical conditioning involves associating two unassociated stimuli, which occurs with repetition.
• Pavlov's conditioning experiments on dogs demonstrated classical conditioning: associating the ringing of a bell with food, causing salivation even without the food.
• Operant conditioning involves associating a behaviour with a reward.
• Skinner box experiments showed the dog pressing a lever for food as reinforcement; associating the lever press with a reward.

Non-Associative Learning (Habituation)

• Learning without association; Animals' responses to stimuli change in the absence of positive or negative reinforcement.
• Habituation is a reduction in response to a stimulus with repeated exposure .
• Example: A wild goose reducing its flight response to humans when repeatedly exposed

Sensitization

• The opposite of habituation, involving an increase in response to a stimulus.
• Repeated stimulus can lead to an increased response.
• Example: heightened sensitivity to motor vehicle noises due to previous trauma.

Latent Learning

• Learning that is not immediately expressed but is learned through experience.
• Example: Tolman's experiment with rats finding food in a maze even without prior positive reinforcement.

Insight Learning

• The ability of an animal to solve a problem in a new situation without prior experience.
• Example: Köhler's chimpanzees using sticks to retrieve bananas.

Imitation

• Learning by copying another individual's behavior.
• Example: Birds learning to retrieve milk from bottles.

Imprinting

• Attachment to a mother or a substitute, during a critical period shortly after birth.
• Example: Baby birds following a moving object, like a human.
• It can be for survival (survival imprinting) or sexual imprinting.

The Importance of Imprinting

• Imprinting can act as an instinct for survival.
• It also helps create a social bond between the offspring and parents.
• Sexual imprinting allows birds to recognize mating partners with similar characteristics to their parents.
• The process is rarer in mammals, with a more extended and complex mother-child relationship and bonding.

Explore the critical role of genetics in shaping animal behaviors and the ongoing debate between nature and nurture. This quiz delves into instinctive actions in animals and the implications of genetic influence in human behaviors, shedding light on the complex interplay of genes and environment.