Learning and Memory - Animal Behavior - Lecture Slides, Slides of Zoology

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LEARNING

and

MEMORY

Behavior

Genes

(Instinct)

Learning

European Ethologists American Psychologists

Which animals are able to learn? (Hint: all animals have nervous systems) Reasonable guess: All animals can learn!! (Def.) Learning is a relatively long ‐ lasting modification of behavior due to experience or practice.

Instinctual

Behavior

Example of an instinctual animal: the mud dauber wasp ‐ Survives winter as a pupae ‐ Summer metamorphoses into an adult wasp ‐ Automatically begins building the mud nest ‐ Automatically begins hunting spiders (paralyzed) larval wasp

Animals have “behavioral repertoires” Origin of repertoires?? Behaviors are …

Learned or

Innate

instinctual (= genetically endowed) or

Some combination of genes & learning i.e., the old NATURE vs NURTURE argument

What do genes do?? Genes … endow every animal with behavioral potential determine an animal’s sensory world determine an animal’s capacity to learn

Psychology has focused on 2 types of learning:

classical conditioning

operant conditioning Biologist View of Psychologists:

Too much focus on rats & mice (what about insects … fish … reptiles??)

Too little focus on other types of learning Psych 100

We’ll consider the following types of learning: ‐ habituation “nonassociative learning” ‐ classical conditioning ‐ operant conditioning ‐ avoidance learning ‐ imprinting ‐ spatial learning ‐ cultural = observational learning “associative learning”

Predator Prey

Habituation

as

a

factor

in

predation??

Habituation of Nereis (marine worm) to 2 stimuli Stimulus ‐ specificity Time ‐ sensitivity

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 5 0 35 30 25 20 15 10 Road-crossing MinnowsDownstream Minnows WaterSpray Minutes Reaction of YCP Tyler Run Minnowsto a water spray disturbance Minutes Swimming Activity Recovery No Recovery

NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF LEARNING Focus on synaptic efficacy = amplitude of EPSP (or IPSP) in response to a pre ‐ synaptic AP

siphon (= antifacilitation)

HABITUATION & SENSITIZATION Conductance: Less More (or head)