Chapter 16.1 Types of Behavior

Behavior Behavior is the way an organism interacts with other organisms and its environment. Animals are different based on the way they behave. They are also born with certain behaviors and they learn certain behaviors. Anything in the environment that causes a reaction from an organism is called a stimulus. A stimulus can be external – like being pinched by someone else would be a stimulus. A stimulus can be internal – like feeling hungry or thirsty. A reaction to a stimulus is called a response.

Innate Behavior Innate behavior is a behavior an organism is born with –these are inherited. For example, a hummingbird building a nest would be innate behavior. The behavior of animals that have short life spans are mostly innate. For example, insects do not learn behaviors from their parents.

Reflexes Reflex actions are the simplest innate behaviors. A reflex is an automatic response. Examples: sneezing, shivering, yawning, jerking your hand away from something hot, blinking your eyes are all reflex actions. A reflex is not a result of conscious thinking.

Instincts An instinct is a complex pattern of innate behavior. For spiders spinning a web would be an instinct.

Learned Behavior Learned behaviors develop during the animals life. Animals with more complex brains can do more learning. Fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals are all able to learn. Learning is the result of experience or practice. Learning allows an animal to respond to changing situations. Learning can also change instincts. For example it can change what an animal is afraid of because they learn what to be afraid of.

Imprinting Imprinting is when an animal forms a social attachment to another organism within a specific time after birth or hatching. When a baby chick follows it’s mother that is imprinting.

Trial and Error Many learned behaviors are learned through trial and error – like you riding a bike, feeding yourself, tying your shoes.

Conditioning Conditioning – behavior is modified so that a response to one stimulus becomes associated with a different stimulus. For example: if you always feed fish from the top of a tank, if you hold your hand over the top the fish will swim to the top expecting to be fed. 2 types of conditioning: Using a new stimulus before the usual stimulus. For example, a scientist always rang a bell before he fed his dogs. The dog connected the sound of the bell with food. When he rang the bell even without giving food the dogs started salivating. The second type is when a new stimulus is given after the affected behavior. Getting an allowance for doing a chore is this type of conditioning.

Insight Insight is a form of reasoning that allows animals to use past experiences to solve new problems. That would be like trying to solve a new math problem using your past math learning.