Animal Behavior
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16 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Behavior | what an animal does and how it does it, usually in response to stimuli in its environment |
| Learning | involves persistent changes in behavior that result from experience |
| Proximate Causes | immediate causes such as the genetic, developmental, + physiological processes that permit the animal to carry out the particular behavior, "How" and "why" questions |
| Ultimate Causes | evolutionary explanations for "why" a certain behavior occurs |
| Nature vs. Nurture | the relative importance of genes compared w/ environmental experience |
| Nervous + Endocrine Systems | the two body systems behavior is mostly influenced by |
| Habituation | type of learning, animal learns to ignore repeated, irrelevant stimulus (one that neither rewards nor punishes) ex. many animals learn to ignore vans transporting humans on photo safaris |
| Imprinting | type of social learning based on early experience-studied in mammals and some birds |
| Classical conditioning | type of learning, an association is formed between some normal body function and a new stimulus ex. sound of a cat opener at dinner time can captivate a pet's attention |
| Operant behavior | type of learning, animal must do something to gain a reward (positive reinforcement) or avoid punishment ex. a pelican chick learns to be more accurate in begging for food from a parent after receiving positive reinforcement |
| Insight learning | ability to adapt past experiences that may involve a different stimuli to solve a new problem ex. by trial and error, a dog may find a way around a barrier in order to reach a reward |
| Play | means of practicing behavior that will be used in real situations later in life ex. kitten pouncing on a dead leaf |
| Habituation | animal learns to ignore repeated, irrelevant stimulus (one that neither rewards nor punishes) |
| Classical conditioning | an association is formed between some normal body function and a new stimulus |
| Operant behavior | animal must do something to gain a reward (positive reinforcement) or avoid punishment |
| Insight learning | ability to adapt past experiences that may involve a different stimuli to solve a new problem |
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