Name
Animal Behavior – Learning Notes
Animal Behavior – Learning Notes
Slide #2 – Essential Questions:
Date
Period
•
What is learning? What is non-learning behavior?
•
What causes learning to happen?
•
What are the categories of learning? Explain & provide examples.
•
What is the significance of Pavlov’s Dogs, Little Albert and Skinner’s boxes?
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What is the importance of social learning and play?
•
What are some behaviors that animals have been taught or trained to do by humans?
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How can the environment impact animal behavior over time?
Slide #3 – What is learning?:
•
Learning – a process in which an animal
from experience so
that its behavior is better suited or changed to environment
•
•
changes behavior
Example of learning:
•
You go to see a movie and show up late. All of the good seats are taken so you
have to sit in the front row. The next time you show up late again and have to sit
in the front row. The next time you are going to the movie theater you decide you
need to get their early so you don’t have to sit in the front row.
Slide #4 – Non-learned behavior:
•
Are all behavioral changes due to learning?
•
•
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Non-learned behavior – not based on
Examples of non-learned behavior:
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You walk into a dark movie theater and stumble around for a few seconds, bump
into a chair, etc. Within a couple of minutes you can see just fine and choose a set
without stumbling or tripping.
•
Why is this non-learned?
•
Maturation of the nervous system. Receptors in the eyes will become
to the less light and allow you to physically see better in the dark.
Slide #5 – What causes learning to happen?:
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Learned changes in behavior are due to experience
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Learning usually happens
•
Experience may be:
•
A certain
•
Practice or repetition
over time
situation
Slide #7 – Categories of learning:
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Classical Conditioning
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Operant Conditioning
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Reinforcement Schedules
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Learning
Slide #8 – Habitation:
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Habituation – a
in some response due to repeated
exposures to a stimulus
•
Examples:
•
An individual purchases a new clock, but initially finds it difficult to concentrate
while working in the room because of the clock’s ticking. A few days pass, and
the person is able to ‘tune out’ the clock due to habituation.
•
Ducks in a small pond at a park are scared of people and fly away when
approached. They become used to humans over time as they interact with them,
and as people feed them, causing them to realize that the humans are not a threat.
Slide # 9 – Habitation:
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One of the
•
Once acquired, the effects of habituation are long lasting
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Type of learning present in single celled organisms up to humans
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Habituation =
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Habit: A
forms of learning
, often unconscious pattern of
behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.
•
Examples of habitation – Deer living at an FBI firing range, Birds and squirrels
sharing a feeder, fish not scared of someone tapping on the glass
Slide #11 – Good and bad of habitation:
Benefits
Drawbacks
Eliminates responses to frequently occurring
De-sensitizes the animal to a potentially
stimuli that have no bearing on the welfare of
dangerous situation
the animal
Keeps the animal from wasting energy
Increases the chances of human/animal
interactions
Slide #12 – Classical conditioning:
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Classical Conditioning - a behavior is conditioned (learned) upon something
•
Example:
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A ball is thrown in your direction and someone yells “Look out!” as the ball hits
you in the face.
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The next time someone yells “Look out!” you duck without even thinking about it.
Slide #13 – Pavlov’s Dogs:
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Ivan Pavlov created a salivating response in dogs by first ringing a bell, then feeding the
dogs.
•
Whenever the dogs would hear the bell they would begin
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Psyc 104 Week 3 - Classical Conditioning
Slide #14 – Pavlov’s Dogs:
•
A
•
Examples:
was formed between a new stimulus and an old response.
•
Taste
– rats are given flavored water, then given
something to make them feel ill. Will no longer drink water with the same flavor
Slide #15 – Little Albert & Phobias:
• A 9-month-old infant (Little Albert) was tested on his reactions to various stimuli
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Shown a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey and various masks with no reactions.
•
However, if a hammer was struck against a steel bar behind his head, the sudden loud
noise would cause "little Albert to burst into tears.”
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Over 7 weeks, Little Albert was shown the rat 7 times while Watson struck the steel bar
causing him to scream and cry.
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Finally, the rat alone would cause extreme fear in Little Albert.
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Experiment provided
evidence that fear are learned, not passed on.
Slide #16 – Little Albert & Phobias:
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Phobia – a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent
of an object or situation that affected person will go to great lengths to avoid, typically
disproportional to the actual danger posed
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Classical conditioning can be “un-learned” or overcome by gradually
yourself to the stimuli.
•
This desensitizing is known as “extinction” and was experienced by both Pavlov’s dogs
and Little Albert.
Slide # 17 – Operant Conditioning:
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Operant Conditioning - when an animal learns to exhibit a behavior based on rewards or
Big Bang Theory - Operant Conditioning
Slide #18 – Reinforcement vs Punishment:
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Reinforcement: a consequence that causes behavior to occur with
frequency
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Punishment: a consequence that causes behavior to occur with
frequency
Slide # 19 – Positive vs Negative Reinforcement:
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Positive Reinforcement: occurs when a behavior is followed by a stimulus to increase
that behavior
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Ex: Child cleans room, gets a
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Negative Reinforcement: occurs when a behavior is followed by the
.
of a stimulus to increase that behavior
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Ex: Alarm clock is ringing. When you wake up and press the button the sound goes away.
Slide #20 – Positive vs Negative Punishment:
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Positive Punishment: when a behavior is followed by a
intended to decrease the behavior
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Ex: Someone grabs a French fry off your plate so you smack their hand.
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Negative Punishment: when a behavior is followed by removing a stimulus to decrease
the behavior
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Ex: A child is
television.
listening to his mother so she turns off the
Slide #22 – Skinner box:
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Created by B.F. Skinner, the Father of Operant Conditioning
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Used to study behavior in a
•
Skinner Box is designed to
environment.
an animal to do something
they normally wouldn’t do using punishment and reinforcement.
Slide # 23 – Skinner Box:
•
In a simple Skinner Box there is a chamber that has a
or key
for the animal to press.
•
A hungry rat is placed in the box. At first the animal will accidently hit the lever and
receive food.
•
Animal learns to
they receive food as a reward.
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Skinner Box - Lever Press
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Weird Weapons (Pigeon Guided Missiles)
to level or key, and when they do
Slide #24 – Skinner box example:
Increasing Behavior
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Reinforcement: rat pushes lever, rat gets cheese
Negative Reinforcement: rat is shocked by
current, hits lever and
current goes away
Decreasing Behavior
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Positive Punishment: when the rat pushes the lever they get
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Negative Punishment: when the rat pushes the lever the food bowl disappears
Slide #25 – Shaping:
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Shaping: a process by which animals are
complex acts
by reinforcing approximations of the final desired behavior.
•
At first, and gross approximation of the final behavior is
. Over
time, only steps closer and closer to the final behavior are rewarded.
Slide #26 – Reinforcement Schedules:
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Reinforcement Schedules: regularly giving
or negative
reinforcement in order to achieve a desired behavior.
•
Examples:
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Feeding babies only at certain
of the day that are the same
every day. This is supposed to set the baby on a feeding schedule.
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Training a dog to go outside morning and evening but not in the middle of the
night.
Slide #27 – Social Learning (observational learning):
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Social Learning - Occurs when one organism learns from others through observation or
imitation. Doing this
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time and energy
Examples: Baby warthogs. Still nurse from their mother, but they are imitating feeding
behavior and learning how and where to find food on their own.
•
Baby cheetahs learn how to hunt by imitating their parents. Young birds learn to sing
through imitation and memorization.
Slide #29 – Social learning through play:
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Animals also learn valuable life and survival skills through
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Examples of learning through play:
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Hunting,
.
, stalking, predator
skills,
and herd/pack interaction
Slide #30 – Functions of learning through play:
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Physical Training for
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Social Skills,
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Learning Specific Skills
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Improving
•
Ex: Dogs violently shake toys and rip them apart, imitation how they would kill prey.
Abilities
Slide # 31 – What are some behaviors that animals have been taught or trained to do by
human?:
•
Exmaples: guard
, entertainment, circus, Seaworld, movies.
sign language, competition – racing, dog shows, dogs herding sheep, pets – housebroken,
litter box, sit, tricks, military, Seeing eye dogs, companion dogs for elderly, disabled, law
enforcement, drug sniffing dogs, bomb sniffing dogs, locate missing people, attack dogs,
police horses, mushroom sniffing pigs, dogs, dogs sniffing cancer cells
Slide #33 – Scrub jay vs clark’s nutcracker:
Which bird would be more likely to remember when it hid seeds?
Scrub jay – Lives in
Clark’s nutcracker – Lives in a seasonally
plant growth
climate; Lush plant growth year round
climate, periods of minimal