TRIAL AND ERROR
To carry out a behaviour, and then remember the attempt along with the outcome- so that an animal can then modify its next attempt- is known as trial and error learning. Humans display this kind of behaviour regularly such as when a child learns to ride a bicycle through trial and error. This type of behaviour is used to improve the chances of success and thus heavily depends on remembering prior experiences and outcomes. Another example may be a rat attempting to find it’s way through a maze or pigeons learning to peck at a key to get food as a reward.
ASSOCIATION
Seeing it’s owner put on their coat can make a dog wag its tail, expecting a walk and this is because the dog has learned to associate the coat wearing with walks. Just as if you hit a dog every time it drank from the toilet, it would soon sop doing it. Associative learning (which contains classical conditioning) involves the association of two stimuli or behaviour and a stimulus. This is how giving pet’s treats or stern actions helps to train them to associate good behaviour with rewards, and bad behaviour with a hit or raised voice.
The association of a new signal (e.g. Ringing bell) with an innate signal (e.g. Tasting of food) that triggers a behavioural response (e.g. salivation) is called classical conditioning. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist took note that dogs would salivate when a drop of food extract was placed on their tongues. Pavlov’s experiment consisted of ringing a bell just before the drops were placed. Soon just the bell ringing would cause the dogs to salivate, regardless of the presence or absence of food. This worked because the dogs associated the bell ringing with feeding. It should be noted that just as associative learning can be produced, it could also be lost over time (for example if the bell was no longer rung- the dogs would forget the association.) Extinction is the name given to this loss of learning.
IMPRINTING
Imprinting is the type of learning during the very short learning period that occurs early in life. For example, when baby ducks are born, they begin to walk within a few hours- and will ‘imprint’ on their mother, following her wherever she goes. However ducklings will just as readily follow any other moving object and form an attachment to it- which can be very hazardous for later life. Adult ducks can find themselves directing their sexual attentions towards individuals of the species that they followed during youth (which may be a dog or another species of bird). Another issue is that animals can lose their readiness to imprint. If ducklings do not find a moving object to follow within a few days, this programmed behaviour will not take place.
Young birds also imprint the location of the North Star in autumn to allow them to migrate in the correct direction. However if these birds are prevented from observing the star during the short learning period- they become disorientated and unable to migrate and determine proper direction.
Nanny goats will groom their kid for a continuous 2 hours after birth, which helps to create a bond between the pair. Again, if this grooming is prevented for about 4 hours or is interrupted before complete, no bond will be formed and the kid will have no female to suckle from.
INSIGHT
This type of learning is only for those with complex brains, such as dolphins, great apes and humans. This is because it is the most complex type of learning, and it involves problems being solved as a result of thinking the problem out- without the use of trial and error. For example, many chimpanzees learn to solve puzzles through problem solving- and then attempt it, or figure out that by stacking up boxes and climbing them it would be able to reach high food. The advantage to this type of behaviour is that it is potentially safer than having to try out every idea. The disadvantage however is that (as a computer analogy) it requires large memory and processing capacity, which is limited to only very few animals.
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