Animal Behaviour PDF

 3)Behavior, Genetic Genetic Influences in Animal Behavior Clearly, genes significantly influence animal behavior.. Such isolated animals include insect mating behavior-- courtship, nesting, and brood-rearing behavior of pigeons--- the songs of some (not all) birds; bird fl...

 3)Behavior, Genetic Genetic Influences in Animal Behavior Clearly, genes significantly influence animal behavior.. Such isolated animals include insect mating behavior-- courtship, nesting, and brood-rearing behavior of pigeons--- the songs of some (not all) birds; bird flight---and nutcracking and nut-burying by squirrels. Animals are born "knowing" how to do certain things. Genes and Human Behavior. Behavioral geneticists find evidence of a genetic influence on schizophrenia, alcoholism, sleep disorders, depression, sexual orientation, intelligence quotient, and many personality traits. (A) The Nature Versus Nurture Debate  One extreme view holds that all animal behavior is instinctive, with little room for learning that children are born as "blank slates« and their future actions rely on experiences written on this slate  For example, the idea of intelligence is sometimes debated. Are people smart because of their genes? Do some children do well in school because their parents were smart? This would show nature being the most important factor. Others might argue ‫ معارض‬that people are smart because they grew up in an environment that encourages learning, reading, and hard work. This is an example of nurture being a factor.  B) Heritability  Heritability has two definitions. The first is a statistical definition, and it defines heritability as the proportion of phenotypic variance attributable to genetic variance. The second definition is more common "sensical". It defines heritability as the extent to which genetic individual differences contribute to individual differences in observed behavior (or phenotypic individual differences).  Environmentability :It is the proportion of phenotypic variance attributable to environmental variance or the extent to which individual differences in the environment contribute to individual differences in behavior.  If the heritability of most human behaviors is in the range of 30 to.60, then the environmentability of most human behaviors will be in the range of 40 to.70  if everyone is treated the same environmentally, then any differences that we observe will largely be due to genes; heritability will be large in this case. However, if the environment treats people very differently, then heritability may be small.  4) Learning and Animal Behavior Learning may take place at any age. Information to be learned can come either from other animals or from an animal's personal experience and observations of its environment.  There are two simple types of learning: associative and non-associative.  Associative Learning "when it occurs with a connection (association) to a positive or negative stimulus ";  non-associative Learning " when such a stimulus is absent ".  Associative learning is often the result of conditioning, which also has two main types: 1- Classical conditioning" occurs when two unassociated stimuli become associated through repetition ". A well known example of classical conditioning is the work of Ivan Pavlov, who conditioned dogs to salivate upon hearing a bell ring by repeatedly presenting them with food accompanied by a ringing bell. The dogs associated the ringing bell with receiving food and thus would salivate in preparation for the food they expected to receive when they heard the bell.  Pavlov, began his famous experiments on conditioning. Pavlov repeatedly presented a dog with food following the ringing of a bell. When the bell sounded without the presentation of food, the dog would still respond to the bell as if it were food.. The dog had learned to associate the sound of the bell with food. Pavlov called the food an unconditional stimulus, or UCS, because the dog's normal reaction would be to salivate at the presentation of food.  The bell he termed the conditional stimulus, or CS. because response to the bell was conditional upon the association between the bell and food. For the same reasons, salivation in response to food was labelled the unconditional response, or UCR, while salivation in response to the bell was called the conditional response, or CR  2- Operant conditioning " requires that the unassociated stimulus become associated with a reward ".  operant conditioning," an unassociated behaviour becomes associated with a reward". B.F. Skinner designed an apparatus called a "Skinner box". A rat was placed inside the Skinner box; if the rat pressed down a lever inside the box then the box would release a food pellet. Soon, the rat pressed the lever far more often than he would just by chance. Most likely, the first time the rat pressed the lever it was by chance. But with each instance of lever pressing, the operant is reinforced by reward with food. The rat leams that pressing the lever is associated with food, and so he will increasingly press it.  A)Non-associative Learning This means they change their response to a stimuli without association with a positive or negative reinforcement. Animals frequently subjected to a stimulus will often become habituated to that stimulus.  More complex forms of learning include" latent learning" , in which a stimulus becomes familiar in the absence of reward or a lo to punishment- , " imitation", and" imprinting", the process by which young animals become familiar with other members of their species.  A)Habituation it is a simple form of learning.when repeated presentations of the stimulus by itself cause a decrease in the response form of Learning. For example, a wild goose's flight response to humans decreases and spend the summer on a lake in a popular park. when it first flew in, it soon ignores people approaching it  Ex2:policehorse, that is gradually exposed to more and more of the potentially frightening stimuli that when he is ignoring the rumpus at a certain noise level  Ex3:The birds did not respond to the scarecrow's effect ‫الفزاعة‬  Animals frequently subjected to a stimulus will often become habituated to that stimulus, they will show a reduction or total elimination of response to a stimulus without positive or negative reinforcement.  B)Sensitisation It is the opposite of habituation in that there is an increase in a response after repeated of the stimulus by itself. Ex1; Magnified unpleasantness of a dripping tap when searching for sleep, the effect of sensitisation becomes clear.  Ex2:,if the police horse had been involved in a road traffic accident every day become sensitised to motor vehicles. the sound or sight of them might be sufficient to send him into a flight response. Sensitization has only been observed in multicellular organisms.  C)Latent learning  Latent Learning is a form of learning that is not immediately expressed in an overt response; it occurs without obvious reinforcement to be applied later. Latent learning is when an organism learns something in its life, but the knowledge is not immediately expressed. For example child may observe a parent setting the table or tightening a screw, but does not act on this learning for a year; then he finds he knows how to do these things  In a classical experiment, Tolman placed three groups of rats in mazes The rats in Group 1 always found food at the end of the maze. Group 2 never found food. Group 3 found no food for 10 days , but then received food on the eleventh. The Group 1 rats quickly learned to rush to the end of the maze to find their food. Group 2 rats did not learn to go to the end. Group 3 acted as the Group 2 rats until food was introduced on Day 11. Then they quickly learned to run to the end of the maze and did as well as the Group 1 rats by the next day  D) Insight learning ‫البصيرة‬ -" The ability of animals to perform a behavior in a new situation without any previous experience". Learning occurs when an animal solves a problem by apparently looking and assessing the situation.  experiment Köhler placed a banana outside the cage of a hungry chimpanzee, Sultan, and gave the animal two sticks, each too short for pulling in the food but joinable to make a single stick of sufficient length. Sultan alternately tried unsuccessfully to use each stick, and he even used one stick to push the other along to touch the banana. ultan accidentally joined the sticks, observed the result, and immediately ran with the longer tool to retrieve the banana. The solutionreappeared immediately when the problem was repeated. so that the necessary motor skills were already available once Sultan accidentally rearranged the sticks. Köhler believed that his chimpanzees had shown insight into the nature of the problem and the means necessary to solve it.  E) Imitation Many species also learn through imitation. In general, it is a fast and efficient way of learning functional new behaviors. For example, in England some birds had learned to get milk by piercing the caps of milk bottles on doorsteps. Over a period of years. Imprinting Imprinting is the development of an attachment to the mother or, if the mother is absent, any moving object close by during the life of a young animal. For example, a newly hatched goose or duck will become attached to a shoe box, a human being, or any object if the goose or duck is removed from its nest shortly after hatching. Comparable behaviour can be observed in many mammal species such as sheep, deer, and dogs. The adaptive value of following a mother is obvious.  lnducing imprinting Some of the characteristics of imprinting could be explained that the baby bird has to search for an adult bird. Before imprinting takes place, the brain of the young bird has a capacity to recognize the types of stimuli which will subsequently be associatively learned, and this is one of the innate components of imprinting. The brain also commands a number of wired-in motor actions that facilitate the learning process and maintain proximity to the object of its attachment The Importance of Imprinting in Nature In the natural environment, behavioural imprinting acts as an instinct for survival in newborns. The offspring must immediately recognize its parent, because threatening events, such as the attack by a predator or by other adults could occur just after hatching. Thus, imprinting is very reliable to induce the formation of a strong social bond between offspring and parent, even if it is the wrong one. and it is called filial imprinting  Another form is sexual imprinting, in which birds learn the characteristics of their siblings‫ قرناء‬, which later on will influence their mating preferences as adults. (In greylag goose, filial and sexual imprinting occurs almost simultaneously‫في نفس الوقت‬, but in other animals there is a clear interval between the two processes(. Imprinting in mammals is more rare. They are born in a very "incomplete" state, with an exceedingly immature brain that will take many months to become fully to operational,. Therefore the mother is the supreme caretaker and protector, and mother-child bonding takes place via other processes than imprinting.  Associative Learning - Learning connected to a positive or negative, stimulus. Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning are examples of associative learning.  Classical conditioning - The process by which an individual learns to associate an unconditional stimulus with a conditional stimulus but receives no benefit from doing so. Pavlov's experiments, in which he conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell (UCS) because they associated the sound with receiving food, is an example of classical conditioning. Compare with operant conditioning.  Conditional response - A response to a stimulus that is dependent upon the association of that stimulus with another stimulus. In Pavlov's conditioning experiments with dogs, salivation at the sound of a bell is the conditional response. Compare with unconditional response.  Conditional stimulus - A stimulus that is unrelated to but becomes associated with another stimulus and thus evokes a response. In Pavlov's conditioning experiments with dogs, the sound of a bell was the conditional stimulus because it will not cause salivation unless it is associated with receiving food. Compare with unconditional stimulus.  Operant conditioning - The process by which a behavior not normally associated with a given stimulus becomes associated by combination with a positive or negative stimulus. Compare with classical conditioning.  Non-associative learning - The opposite of associative learning; learning in which there is no connected stimulus.Habituation is an example of non-associative learning.  Habituated - The reduction or elimination of the response to a stimulus upon frequent exposure. See also dishabituation.  Sensitized - An individual is sensitized when it is presented with a strong or novel stimulus. Any stimulus given after sensitization will receive a stronger response than normal. Compare with dishabituation.  Latent learning - The process by which an individual familiarizes itself with a stimulus without the association of a positive or negative stimulus.  Imitation - The copying of an individual's behavior by another..  Imprinted - A young animal that recognizes and is attracted to another animal is said to be imprinted upon that animal. The process of imprinting takes place early in life.  Filial imprinting - The imprinting of offspring on their parents  Sexual imprinting - A type of general imprinting in which individuals recognize and, later in life, are attracted to features of their opposite-sex siblings and parents.