Honeybee dance language - Fig 38.22
Naive motmots attacking coral snake models
B. Classical ethological description
1. Sign stimulus
a. cues that trigger neural pathways and initiate a behavioral response
b. ex: red stickleback belly incites territorial behavior
2. Fixed action pattern
a. series of behaviors triggered by a specific cue
b. ex: graylag geese egg rolling, even without egg
c. magnitude of response
i. often depends only on a few features that are detected
ii. herring gull chicks use a moving spot to locate their mother's bill, Fig. 38.8
C. Modern neurobiological interpretation
1. Prey detection in toads
2. "worm" model elicits best behavioral response
3. physiological recordings indicate "worm" detection neurons in optic
tectum
II. Imprinting - environmental cues are detected and remembered over a brief critical
period
A. filial
1. precocial birds follow their mother shortly after hatching
2. critical period for geese lasts from 10-20 h after hatching
B. habitat
1. salmon return to the river they were hatched in
2. use chemical cue to locate correct river
C. sexual
1. many song birds copy songs heard during nestling period
2. critical period for white-crowned sparrows lasts from 10-50 days after hatching
III Learning
A. Classical conditional - Pavlovian response
1. Unconditioned stimulus (Food) -> Unconditioned response (salivation)
2. Conditioned stimulus (food + bell) + Unconditioned stimulus (salivation)
3. CS (bell) -> UR (or conditioned response, CR, salivation)
4. Only some associations can be learned
a. Rats only associate getting sick with taste, and sound with getting shocked
b. consistent with selection acting on what to learn
B. Operant conditioning - trial-and-error learning
1. exploratory behavior leads to accidental reward
2. subsequent rewards reinforce behavior
3. termination of rewards will eventually lead to the behavior being extinguished
4. used by psychologists to shape an animal's behavior
5. occurs whenever an animal can encounter the same task repeatedly. Some mimicry
complexes have evolved because predators learn by trial-and-error learning
a. Batesian mimicry - model is noxious, mimic is palatable
b. Mullerian mimicry - model and mimic are noxious
D. Social learning
1. occurs whenever the behavior of one animal changes after interaction with conspecifics
2. acquisition of predator alarm calling behavior by vervet monkeys
3. can lead to traditions, e.g. milk bottle opening by great tits in Great Britain
E. Evolution of learning
1. instinct is favored when
a. costs of mistakes are high and
b. environment is stable and predictable over evolutionary time scales
2. imprinting is favored when
a. a behavior needs to be learned early in life, and then remain invariant to avoid
confusion later in life
3. trial-and-error learning is better than instinct if
a. the environment changes, e.g. new food must be found or new predators must be
recognized
b. the cost of making a mistake is low
4. social learning
a. avoids the costs of making mistakes
b. allows for rapid evolution of behaviors
c. does not track rapid environmental changes