Behavior

What is Behavior?

 Way of acting of animal in response to a particular stimulus through his actions and manners.

Types of behavior:-

·         Innate behavior

·         Learned behavior

Innate behavior:-

Innate behavior depends on the heredity material which the animal inherits. It is also known as instinctive behavior. Experience has no role in this type of behavior.

Example:-pill bugs reach moist area due to this behavior. Behavior of digger wasps is instinctive.

Innate behavior has two types.

·         Orientation

·         Reflexes

Learning behavior:-

This type of behavior depends on the learning.  Animals learn through the environment and according to this leaning or experience modify his behavior. But ability to modify the behavior depends on heredity material.

Example:-Trial and error learning in cat, through which cat learns to press the lever to open the cage of door. Thorpe classified learning behavior into 6 category and describe as:

1)      Imprinting

2)      Habituation

3)      Conditioning

4)      Operant Conditioning

5)      Latent Learning

6)      Insight Learning

1. Imprinting:-

Imprinting is a form of learning in which young birds after hatching make association with the moving object in their surroundings.  Any moving object in their surroundings can be imprinted on their mind and they follow them.

Example:-Young chicks and ducklings follow their mother soon after hatching.

2. Habituation:-

Habituation is simplest form of learning. In habituation animal modify his behavior through decline in response to repeated stimuli.

Example:-Response of rodents to alarm calls by others in their groups. They ignore the calls if these calls are continued and if no danger is confirmed.

3. Conditioning:-

In it two irrelevant stimuli paired with the natural stimulus that draws an automatic response.

Example:-Dogs started to secrete the saliva on ringing of bell, which is not normal stimulus for secretion of saliva. Pavlov performed experiment in which he would rang the bell just before giving food to the dogs so the dos become conditioned to secondary stimulus(ringing of bell) and started secreting saliva in response.

4. Operant Conditioning:-

It is more complex type of learning. It is also known as trial and error learning. This type of behavior is modified through rewards and punishment.

Example:- experiments were performed on cats and rats to run a maize to either get food or to press the lever to come out of cage.

5. Latent learning:-

Latent learning is learning without reward. In it two different stimuli are paired together without patent reward.

Example:-If we put a rat in the maize, after wandering he will accidently get the food. If we put the maize in the same maize, he will directly reach the food. That means while wandering, rat learn something without motivation of any reward.

6. Insight learning:-

It is a complex form of learning. In it animal modify his behavior through the application of reasoning. An animal can direct his behavior to solve a problem through reasoning.

Example:-A chimpanzee is placed in a cage in which fruits hangs from the ceiling. He cannot reach the food but some boxes are present in the cage. After a while, he will placed boxes one above the other and climbs up to reach the food.