CHAPTER 51 BEHAVIORAL BIOLOGY Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings Section B: Learning 1.Learning is experienced-based modification of behavior 2. Imprinting is learning limited to a sensitive period 3. Bird song provides a model system for understanding the development of behavior 4. Many animals can learn to associate one stimulus with another 5. Practice and exercise may explain the ultimate bases of play

Learning is the modification of behavior resulting from specific experiences. The alarm calls of vervet monkeys provide an example of how animals improve their performance of behavior. 1. Learning is experience-based modification of behavior Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings Fig. 51.8

Learning versus maturation. Maturation is the situation in which a behavior may improve because of ongoing developmental changes in neuromuscular systems, for example, flight in birds. As a bird continues to develop its muscles and nervous system, it is able to fly. It is not true learning. Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Habituation. This involves a loss of responsiveness to unimportant stimuli or stimuli that do not provide appropriate feedback. For example, some animals stop responding to warning signals if signals are not followed by a predator attack (the “cry-wolf” effect). Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Imprinting is the recognition, response, and attachment of young to a particular adult or object. Konrad Lorenz experimented with geese that spent the first hours of their life with him and after time responded to him as their “parent.” Lorenz isolated geese after hatching and found that they could no longer imprint on anything. 2. Imprinting is learning limited to a sensitive period Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

What is innate in these birds is the ability to respond to a parent figure; while the outside world provides the imprinting stimulus. The sensitive period is a limited phase in an individual animal’s development when learning particular behaviors can take place Fig Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Some songbirds have a sensitive period for developing their songs. Individuals reared in silence performed abnormal songs, but if recordings of the proper songs were played early in the life of the bird, normal songs developed. 3. Bird song provides a model system for understanding the development of behavior Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings Fig a

Canaries exhibit open-ended learning where they add new syllables to their song as the get older. Fig b Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Associative learning is the ability of many animals to learn to associate one stimulus with another. Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning. 4. Many animals can learn to associate one stimulus with another Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Pavlov’s dog is a good example. Ivan Pavlov exposed dogs to a bell ringing and at the same time sprayed their mouths with powdered meat, causing them to salivate. Soon, the dogs would salivate after hearing the bell but not getting any powdered meat. Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Operant conditioning. This is called trial-and-error learning - an animal learns to associate one of its own behaviors with a reward or a punishment. Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings Fig

Play as a behavior has no apparent external goal, but may facilitate social development or practice of certain behaviors and provide exercise. 5. Practice and exercise may explain the ultimate bases of play Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings Fig