Animal Behavior

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Imprinting

(a) Konrad Lorenz and geese

(b) Pilot and cranes

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Spatial Learning

Spatial learning is a more complex modification of behavior based on experience with the spatial structure of the environment.

Niko Tinbergen showed how digger wasps use landmarks to find nest entrances.

A cognitive map is an internal representation of spatial relationships between objects in an animal’s surroundings often using particular landmarks.

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Does a digger wasp use landmarks to find her nest?

Pinecone

Nest

EXPERIMENT

RESULTS

Nest

No nest

Slide 28

Associative Learning

In associative learning, animals associate one feature of their environment with another. Example: a mouse will avoid eating caterpillars with specific colors after a bad experience with a distasteful monarch butterfly caterpillar.

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning in which an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment. Example: a dog that repeatedly hears a bell before being fed will salivate in anticipation at the bell’s sound.

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Operant conditioning is a type of associative learning in which an animal learns to associate one of its behaviors with a reward or punishment.

It is also called trial-and-error learning.

Example: a rat that is fed after pushing a lever will learn to push the lever in order to receive food.

Example: a predator may learn to avoid a specific type of prey associated with a painful experience.

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Cognition and Problem Solving

Cognition is a process of knowing that may include awareness, reasoning, recollection, and judgment.

For example, honeybees can distinguish “same” from “different.”

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Problem solving is the process of devising a strategy to overcome an obstacle.

Example: chimpanzees can stack boxes in order to reach suspended food.

Some animals learn to solve problems by observing other individuals.

Example: young chimpanzees learn to crack palm nuts with stones by copying older chimpanzees

Slide 32

A young chimpanzee learning to crack oil palm nuts by observing an experienced elder

Slide 33

Development of Learned Behaviors