FASIL AHMED (BEd, MSc)

April 2016
 PREFACE

This reference material is prepared based on the contents of your grade 12 biology textbook.

This material is composed of Notes, Glossary, Selected readings as well as questions and has

tried to simplify the presentation of concepts. Since there are no many reference books on

behaviour, this one would be very helpful to understand behaviour in a better way.

To help you assess your understanding of the contents, there are multiple choice questions

from CPS and Ethiopian university entrance exams. Based on feedback comments from you on

my previous works, I have included the answers for all questions at the end.

You may find contents in more detail in this material than what is found in your textbook. This

should not worry you. You must, eventually, depend on your textbooks since your

examinations are set based on them.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Chercher preparatory school for funding the

printing of this material. I would also like to thank Mr. Selam Girma for his computer related

assistance during the development of this reference material.

 Contents

INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIOUR .........................................................................................1

How do plants respond to unidirectional stimuli? ....................................................................1

How do simple animals respond to stimuli? .............................................................................4

Why we study behaviour? .......................................................................................................5

INNATE BEHAVIOUR............................................................................................................ 12

Types of innate behaviour ..................................................................................................... 12

Reflex actions .................................................................................................................... 12

Orientational Behaviour..................................................................................................... 14

Instinctive Behaviours ....................................................................................................... 15

LEARNED BEHAVIOUR ........................................................................................................ 20

Kinds of Learned Behaviour .................................................................................................. 21

Habituation........................................................................................................................ 21

Sensitisation ...................................................................................................................... 21

Classical conditioning ....................................................................................................... 22

Operant conditioning ......................................................................................................... 23

Latent Learning ................................................................................................................. 24

Insight learning.................................................................................................................. 24

EXAMPLES OF BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS ........................................................................... 26

Reproductive behavior .......................................................................................................... 26

Sexual Selection ................................................................................................................ 26

i
 Mating Systems ................................................................................................................. 27

Parental Behavior .............................................................................................................. 28

Territorial behaviour ............................................................................................................. 28

Defending territory ............................................................................................................ 29

Why do animals defend their territories?............................................................................ 29

Social behaviour .................................................................................................................... 30

Social behaviour in Bees ....................................................................................................... 32

GLOSSARY ............................................................................................................................. 34

Selected Readings ..................................................................................................................... 42

CPS Exams (2003–2007) .......................................................................................................... 43

UEE (1995–2007) ..................................................................................................................... 51

ANSWERS ............................................................................................................................... 59

ii
 BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIOUR

 Behaviour can be defined in a number of ways:

 The observable response a person makes to any situation.

 A manner of acting or conducting yourself.

 The way a person behaves towards other people.

 The actions or reactions of a person or animal in response to external or internal stimuli.

 The responses or reactions or movements made by an organism in any situation.

 The co–ordinated response of an organism to an internal or external stimulus.

 This is quite complete from a biological viewpoint.

 Any behaviour must have these components: A receptor, an effector and Coordinating

system.

How do plants respond to unidirectional stimuli?

 Permanent movements resulting from external stimuli coming from one direction are

commonly referred to as tropisms.

 A tropism is the growth of a plant toward or away from a stimulus.

 Tropisms are growth movements resulting from varying growth rates in different parts of an

organ. They are mainly related to young parts of a plant and, as a rule, are quite slow,

usually taking at least 2 hours to become apparent.

Phototropism

 The tendency for parts of plants to grow towards light (positive phototropism) or away from

light (negative phototropism).

1
 The components of this behaviour are:

 Stimulus: Light from one side

 Receptor: Receptor cells in the shoot tip

 Coordination: Auxins produced and move away from light.

 Effector : Cells on dark side of stem grow fastest

 Response : Shoot grows towards light

 The shoot tips of most plants are positively phototropic, while roots are either insensitive to

light or negatively phototropic.

Gravitropism

 It is the tendency for parts of plants to grow towards gravity (positive gravitropism) or away

from gravity (negative gravitropism). They are growth responses to the stimulus of gravity.

 The primary roots of plants tend to be positively gravitropic, while shoots forming the main

axis of plants are typically negatively gravitropic.

 Ciesielski (1872) and Darwin (1880) demonstrated the root cap is essential for root

gravitropism. They postulated that the root cap could perceive a change in root-tip

orientation within the gravitational field (gravistimulus).

 In higher plants the gravity susceptors are believed to be dense amyloplasts that

sediment in specialized cells.

Thigmotropism

 A plant or plant part response to contact with a solid object is called a thigmotropism.

 One of the most common thigmotropic responses is seen in the coiling of tendrils and in

the twining of climbing plant stems.

 Such responses can be relatively rapid, with some tendrils wrapping around a support

two or more times within an hour.

2
  The coiling results from cells in contact becoming slightly shorter while those on the

opposite side elongate.

Hydrotropism

 A plant's growth response in which the direction of growth is determined by a stimulus or

gradient in water concentration.

 The growth or movement of a fixed organism, especially a plant, or a part of an organism

toward or away from water.

 The response can be positive (towards the water) or negative (away from the water).

Roots, for instance, are positively hydrotropic. That means that they grow towards moist

soils to avoid draught stress. Once a root cap has sensed water it bends and then the root

grows towards it.

 This ability to bend and grow the root towards moisture gradient is essential because plants

need water to grow. Water, together with soluble mineral nutrients, is taken up by the root

hairs.

Thermotropism

 Thermotropism or Thermotropic Movement is the movement of a plant or part of a plant in

response to a change in temperature.

 A common example is the curling of Rhododendron leaves in response to cold temperatures.

Traumotropism

 The ability of growing plant organs to modify their orientation as a result of injury.

 Unilateral injury to the tip of a root produces negative traumatropism, that is, bending of the

root in a direction opposite to the injured side.

 Unilateral in jury to the shoot apex produces positive traumatropism, that is, bending in the

direction of the injury.

3
Chemotropism

 The growth or movement of a plant or plant part in response to a chemical stimulus.

 An example is the growth of a pollen tube down the style during fertilization in response to

the presence of sugars in the style.

Electrotropism

 A kind of tropism which results in growth or migration of an organism, usually a cell, in

response to an exogenous electric field.

Aerotropism

 Plant growth response affected by the presence of air.

 For example, negative aerotropism is growth away from air, an example of which is the

growth of the pollen tube from the stigma to the ovary in flowering plants.

Heliotropism

 Heliotropism is a plant's turning response (mostly diurnal) to light intensity and direction.

 Plants can either face the light (positive response) or turn away from it (negative response).

 Heliotropic plants are solar tracking plants!

How do simple animals respond to stimuli?

 Two different types of responses

1. Taxes (Singular taxis): The animal moves along a gradient of intensity of a stimulus

towards the greatest intensity of the stimulus and sometimes away from the greatest

intensity.

 There is a directional response to a directional stimulus.

 For example, Euglena swims towards areas of increased light intensity.

4
2. Kineses (singular kinesis): A change in the intensity of the stimulus brings about a change

in the rate of movement.

 Not a change in the direction of movement.

 For example, woodlice increase their rate of movement in bright light.

How do woodlice respond to a change in the intensity of light?

 Woodlice are small land–dwelling crustaceans.

 Because of their flattened shape and small size, they have a relatively large surface –

area – to – volume ratio.

 They tend to lose water quickly through their body surface.

 They are typically found under logs, stones, bark and amongst leaf litter.

 When brought into the light, the woodlice start to move around much more quickly.

 This increased rate of movement is a response to the increased intensity of light

(kinesis).

 The components for this behaviour are:

 Stimulus: – Light /dark

 Receptor :– Light detected by ocelli (simple eyes)

 Coordinating : – Nerve cells transmit impulses to/from central nervous system

 Effector:– Increased rate of muscle contraction

 Response:– Increased movement

Why we study behaviour?

 The study of behaviour is important in its own right. For the same reasons that we study the

universe and subatomic particles there is intrinsic interest in the study of animals.

 While the study of animal behavior is important as a scientific field on its own, ethology has

made important contributions to other disciplines with applications to the study of human

5
 behavior, to the neurosciences, to the environment and resource management, to the study of

animal welfare and to the education of future generations of scientists.

The impact of the study of animal behaviour on human society

 Many problems in human society are often related to the interaction of environment and

behavior or genetics and behavior.

 The fields of socioecology and animal behavior deal with the issue of environment

behavioral interactions both at an evolutionary level and a proximate level.

 By studying animal behaviour we gain an insight into our own.

 Increasingly social scientists are turning to animal behavior as a framework in which to

interpret human society and to understand possible causes of societal problems.

 E.g. Daly and Wilson's book on human homicide is based on an evolutionary analysis

from animal research. Many studies on child abuse utilize theory and data from studies

on infanticide in animals.

 Research by de Waal on chimpanzees and monkeys has illustrated the importance of

cooperation and reconciliation in social groups. This work provides new perspectives by

which to view and ameliorate aggressive behavior among human beings.

 The methodology applied to study animal behavior has had a tremendous impact in

psychology and the social sciences. The behavioral study of humans would be much

diminished today without the influence of animal research.

 Charles Darwin's work on emotional expression in animals has had an important

influence on many psychologists, such as Paul Ekman, who study human emotional

behavior.

 Harry Harlow's work on social development in rhesus monkeys has been of major

importance to theories of child development and to psychiatry.

6
  The work of Overmier, Maier and Seligman on learned helplessness has had a similar

effect on child development and psychiatry.

 The comparative study of behavior over a wide range of species can provide insights into

influences affecting human behavior. For example, the woolly spider monkey in Brazil

displays no overt aggressive behavior among group members. We might learn how to

minimize human aggression if we understood how this species of monkey avoids

aggression.

 If we want to have human fathers be more involved in infant care, we can study the

conditions under which paternal care has appeared in other species like the California mouse

or in marmosets and tamarins.

 Studies of various models of the ontogeny of communication in birds and mammals have

had direct influence on the development of theories and the research directions in the study

of child language.

 Understanding the differences in adaptability between species that can live in a variety of

habitats versus those that are restricted to limited habitats can lead to an understanding of

how we might improve human adaptability as our environments change.

 Research by animal behaviorists on animal sensory systems has led to practical applications

for extending human sensory systems. Griffin's demonstrations on how bats use sonar to

locate objects has led directly to the use of sonar techniques in a wide array of applications

from the military to fetal diagnostics.

 Studies of chimpanzees using language analogues have led to new technology (computer

keyboards using arbitrary symbols) that have been applied successfully to teaching language

to disadvantaged human populations.

7
 Basic research on circadian and other endogenous rhythms in animals has led to research

relevant to human factors and productivity in areas such as coping with jet–lag or changing

from one shift to another.

 Research on animals has developed many of the important concepts relating to coping with

stress, for example studies of the importance of prediction and control on coping behavior.

The impact of the study of animal behaviour on neuroscience

 Sir Charles Sherrington, an early Nobel Prize winner, developed a model for the structure

and function of the nervous system based only on close behavioral observation and

deduction. Seventy years of subsequent neurobiological research has completely supported

the inferences Sherrington made from behavioral observation.

 Neuroethology, the integration of animal behavior and the neurosciences, provides

important frameworks for hypothesizing neural mechanisms.

 Careful behavioral data allow neurobiologists to narrow the scope of their studies and to

focus on relevant input stimuli and attend to relevant responses.

 In many case the use of species specific natural stimuli has led to new insights about neural

structure and function that contrast with results obtained using non–relevant stimuli.

 Recent work in animal behavior has demonstrated a downward influence of behavior and

social organization on physiological and cellular processes.

 Variations in social environment can inhibit or stimulate ovulation, produce menstrual

synchrony, induce miscarriages and so on.

 Other animal studies show that the quality of the social and behavioral environment have a

direct effect on immune system functioning.

 Researchers in physiology and immunology need to be guided by these behavioral and

social influences to properly control their own studies.

8
The impact of the study of animal behaviour on environment and resources management

 The behavior of animals often provides the first clues or early warning signs of

environmental degradation.

 Changes in sexual and other behavior occur much sooner and at lower levels of

environmental disruption than changes in reproductive outcomes and population size.

 If we wait to see if numbers of animal populations are declining, it may be too late to

take measures to save the environment.

 Studies of natural behavior in the field are vital to provide baseline data for future

environmental monitoring. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency uses

disruptions in swimming behavior of minnows as an index of possible pesticide pollution.

 Basic research on how salmon migrate back to their home streams started more than 40

years ago by Arthur Hasler has taught us much about the mechanisms of migration. This

information has also been valuable in preserving the salmon industry in the Pacific

Northwest and applications of Hasler's results has led to the development of a salmon

fishing industry in the Great Lakes. Basic animal behavior research can have important

economic implications.

 Animal behaviorists have described variables involved in insect reproduction and host plant

location leading to the development of non–toxic pheromones for insect pest control that

avoid the need for toxic pesticides. Understanding of predator prey relationships can lead to

the introduction of natural predators on prey species.

 Knowledge of honeybee foraging behavior can be applied to mechanisms of pollination

which in turn is important for plant breeding and propagation.

 An understanding of foraging behavior in animals can lead to an understanding of forest

regeneration. Many animals serve as seed dispersers and are thus essential for the

propagation of tree species and essential for habitat preservation.

9
 The conservation of endangered species requires that we know enough about natural

behavior (migratory patterns, home range size, interactions with other groups, foraging

demands, reproductive behavior, communication, etc) in order to develop effective reserves

and effective protection measures.

 Relocation or reintroduction of animals (such as the golden lion tamarin) is not possible

without detailed knowledge of a species' natural history. With the increasing importance of

environmental programs and human management of populations of rare species, both in

captivity and in the natural habitat, animal behavior research becomes increasingly

important. Many of the world's leading conservationists have a background in animal

behavior or behavioral ecology.

 Basic behavioral studies on reproductive behavior have led to improved captive breeding

methods for whooping cranes, golden lion tamarins, cotton–top tamarins, and many other

endangered species. Captive breeders who were ignorant of the species' natural reproductive

behavior were generally unsuccessful.

The impact of the study of animal behaviour on animal welfare

 Our society has placed increased emphasis on the welfare of research and exhibit animals.

 Animal welfare without knowledge is impossible. Animal behavior researchers look at the

behavior and well–being of animals in lab and field. We have provided expert testimony to

bring about reasonable and effective standards for the care and well–being of research

animals.

 Further developments in animal welfare will require input from animal behavior specialists.

Improved conditions for farm animals, breeding of endangered species, proper care of

companion animals all require a strong behavioral data base.

10
The impact of the study of animal behaviour on science education

 Many in our society are concerned with scientific illiteracy, the lack of interest that students

have in science and the fact that women and minority groups are underrepresented in

science.

 Courses in ethology and behavioral ecology serve as hooks to interest students in behavioral

biology.

 Ethology is the study of human and animal behavior. It is a subfield of biology. Its focus is

on understanding behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Ethologists observe animals in

their natural habitats to identify their species–typical behaviors and the conditions under

which those behaviors occur.

 Ethology is closely connected with the names of Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen and

Karl von Frisch. All three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and

physiology in 1973 (Tinbergen 1974).

 von Frisch led the study of honeybee communication and sensory biology.

 Lorenz focused on social development (imprinting) and the natural history of

aggression.

 Tinbergen examined the functional significance of behavior and was the first behavioral

ecologist.

FIGURE 1. The founding fathers of ethology: Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, and Niko

Tinbergen pioneered the study of behavioral science.

11
 INNATE BEHAVIOUR

 A behaviour that is present at birth or hatching and determined by the "hard-wiring" of the

nervous system. It is usually inflexible, a given stimulus triggering a given response.

 A pattern of behaviour that arises in a complete form the first time an animal responds to

relevant stimuli without having been learned.

 An animal‟s behaviour that has not been changed by learning processes.

 An animal‟s inherited behavior that is independent of its experience.

 An animal‟s behavior that develops without obvious environmental influence.

 Some workers synonymize “innate behavior” and “instinctive behavior” in certain contexts;

others distinguish between these two behaviors.

 We tend to think of a given bit of behavior as either learned or instinctive. However, this is a

false dichotomy – a given behavior may, and probably will, involve both.

 Today, nearly all biologists agree that all behaviour is a consequence of genetic (innate) and

environmental (learning) influences.

Types of innate behaviour

Reflex actions

 A single action is performed in response to a specific stimulus.

 They are performed in exactly the same way each time.

 Reflexes are necessary for organisms to survive.

 Withdrawal of a foot when we stop on a sharp object is an example of a reflex action.

 To produce these behaviour each participating sensory and motor nerve cell sequentially

generates four different signals at different sites within the cell: an input signal, a trigger

signal, a conducting signal, and an output signal.

12
 Human reflex actions

 2 main kinds

1. Somatic reflexes – involve our special senses & produce a response by a muscle

2. Autonomic reflexes – involve sensors in internal organs and produce responses also in

internal organs.

Structure of the Nervous system

A. Physically, the CNS and PNS.

i. CNS: The Central nervous system (CNS) is a portion of the nervous system consisting of the

brain and spinal cord. It interprets sensory input before coordinating a response that helps

maintain homeostasis.

a) Brain: It is an enlarged superior portion of the central nervous system located in the cranial

cavity of the skull. The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human

body. It is made up of more than 100 billion nerves that communicate in trillions of

connections called synapses.

b) Spinal Cord: The nerve cord that is continuous with the base of the brain plus the vertebral

column which protects the nerve cord. The spinal cord extends from the base of the brain

through a large opening in the skull called the foramen magnum and into the vertebral canal

formed by openings in the vertebrae. The spinal cord provides a means of communication

between the brain and the peripheral nerves that leave the cord. The spinal cord is also the

center for thousands of reflex arcs.

ii. PNS: The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is composed of the cranial (12 nerves) and

spinal nerves (31 pairs). The Peripheral Nervous System provides communication between the

brain and spinal cord and the body‟s muscles, glands and sensory receptors.

13
 a) Spinal nerve: Nerve that arises from the spinal cord.

b) Cranial nerve: Nerve that arises from the brain.

B. Functionally, the SNS and ANS.

i. SNS – integrates information from the special senses to produce responses in skeletal

muscles.

ii. ANS – integrates information from receptors in internal organs and produces responses in the

same or other organs or glands.

The ANS further subdivided into:

1. The sensory division – transmit impulses into the CNS

2. The sympathetic division – The part of the autonomic system that usually promotes

activities associated with emergency (fight or flight) situations; uses norepinephrine as a

neurotransmitter.

3. The parasympathetic division – It is a part of the autonomic system that is active under

normal conditions; uses acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter. The parasympathetic division

promotes all the internal responses we associate with a relaxed state; for example, it causes

the pupil of the eye to contract, promotes digestion of food, and retards the heartbeat.

Orientational Behaviour

 It is simply all the reactions that guide an animal to its correct position and its proper

environment.

 It is movement towards favourable condition.

 The automatic moving away of a maggot from light is negative phototaxis and it keeps

the flies in a safe area.

 Woodlice become more active in dry areas and less so in humid areas. This behaviour

tends to keep the animals in their most favourable environment.

14
 Orientational behaviours enable animals to detect directions and travel in particular paths

until reaching destination.

 Navigation is the most complex, and involves determining one‟s present location

relative to other locations in addition to detecting compass directions.

 Cues for these behaviors include the earth‟s magnetic field, the sun, and the stars.

 Orientational behaviours are very important because they affect the distribution of animals.

 This behaviour is more complex than reflex.

Instinctive Behaviours

 They involve the most complex behaviours.

 These are genetically pre–programmed patterns of behaviour.

 They do not require learning or experience. However, sometimes they are alterable by

experience in ways specific to each species.

 There is always a FAP for each key stimulus.

Characteristics

 It is stereotyped (performed in the same way by members of a species).

 It is complete (performed in its entirety) the first time it is performed.

 There is a key stimulus that triggers the behaviour.

 There is an innate releasing mechanism.

 There is a FAP (can be modified slightly) in response to the key stimulus.

 The simplest example of an instinctive behavior is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which

a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in

response to a clearly defined stimulus.

 Fixed Action Pattern is a stereotyped pattern of behavior that tends to be elicited by a

specific stimulus.

15
 They are adaptive i.e. they confer a survival advantage.

E.g. feeding behaviour of herring gulls and aggression in Sticklebacks

Imprinting

 A process by which a newborn or very young animal establishes a behavior pattern of

recognition and attraction to another animal of its own kind or to a substitute or an object

identified as the parent.

 The most common imprinting occurs when new–born animals learn to identify a mother

figure.

 Imprinting occurs during a specific phase in an animal‟s development, called a sensitive

period („time window‟).

 Imprinting is one class of behavior that is determined by both genes and learning.

 Nobel Prize–winning ethologist Konrad Lorenz studied how geese come to identify their

mothers and follow them to ponds to feed. Lorenz found that goslings follow the first large

object they see moving away from the nest. The goslings would follow wagons, boxes,

balloons, and even Lorenz himself, as seen in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2. The eager goslings following Konrad Lorenz think he is their mother. He is the first

object they saw when they hatched, and they have used him as a model for imprinting.

16
 Another example is found in sea turtles. Sea turtles imprint on characteristics of the beach

where they hatch. Years later they are able to find their way back to the same beach to

breed.

 During this time, certain types of learning take place that are later very difficult to change.

For example, it is much easier for young children to learn multiple languages. This is much

more difficult later in life. Scientists hypothesize that this change in the ability to learn as

young animals mature is related to genes that control processes of development.

Attachment formation

 In human infants, there is a behavioural pattern which is comparable to imprinting and it is

known as attachment formation.

 Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another

across time and space.

 It involves the formation of a strong emotional bond between an infant and its primary

caregiver.

 Attachment formation takes place in three steps:

a. Pre–attachment: The infant prefers people to objects for the first two months.

However, the infant is unable to identify between different people.

b. Indiscriminate attachment: Infants who are 2–7 months old start to display preference

for familiar people. This means they can discriminate between different people.

c. True emotional attachment: Infants older than 7 months can form true emotional

attachment to their favourite(s). As John Bowlby (1958) pointed out, attachment

formation is a result of natural selection and has survival value.

17
What are Biological Clocks?

 Some internal regulatory mechanism that controls various cyclical responses in living

things.

 An example of convergent evolution.

 It is found in suprachiasmatic nucleus (in mammals)

 Controlled mainly by the release of hormones.

Cyclic Behavior

 Some behaviors occur in synchrony with cyclical changes in the environment. These cyclic

behaviors include circadian rhythms, lunar cycles, hibernation, and migration.

a. Circadian rhythms

 They are patterns of physiological and behavioral processes that are timed to a near 24–hour

period.

 They include sleep–wake cycles, body temperature, blood pressure, and the release of

hormones.

Features of circadian rhythm

 They have a period of roughly 24 h under constant external conditions

 They adapt to light/darkness schemes as provided by variations in light intensity i.e. the

rhythms are entrainable.

b. Lunar cycles

 Many marine animals that live along the shore have biological cycles related to the tides.

 Tidal cycles are also called lunar cycles because the tide is determined by the phases of the

moon.

c. Circannual rhythms

 Rhythms that have a period that is about a year when undisturbed by environmental signals.

18
d. Migratory Behavior

 Migration is a periodic group movement that is characteristic of a population or species.

 There are many types of migration.

 Migration is exhausting and risky yet it allows animals to find habitats with plentiful

seasonal foods and provides nesting sites safe from predators.

e. Hibernation

 Some animals go into a period of inactivity and lowered body temperature during the winter

when food is scarce. This type of behavior is called hibernation.

 Some hibernating animals, such as ground squirrels, drop their body temperature to a few

degrees above freezing and do not wake for weeks at a time.

19
 LEARNED BEHAVIOUR

 In the previous topic (Innate behaviour) we saw how genes influence behavior. We now

examine how the environment influences behavior.

 In humans the most important mechanisms by which the environment alters behavior are

learning and memory.

 Learning is the process by which we acquire knowledge about the world, while memory is

the process by which that knowledge is encoded, stored, and later retrieved.

 Many important behaviours are learned.

 Indeed, we are who we are largely because of what we learn and what we remember.

 We learn the motor skills that allow us to master our environment, and we learn

languages that enable us to communicate what we have learned, thereby transmitting

cultures that can be maintained over generations.

 But not all learning is beneficial or may not be adaptive.

 Learned beahviour develops through trial and error or by insight and may be modified by

new experiences. They may vary from individual to individual.

 Unlike innate behaviours, they are rarely fully functional the first time they are performed.

 There are two types of learning: Non associative learning and Associative learning.

 In non associative learning the subject learns about the properties of a single stimulus.

Non associative learning results when an animal or a person is exposed once or

repeatedly to a single type of stimulus. Two forms of non associative learning are

common in everyday life: habituation and sensitization.

 In associative learning the subject learns about the relationship between two stimuli or

between a stimulus and a behavior. Two forms of associative learning have also been

distinguished based on the experimental procedures used to establish the learning.

20
  Classical conditioning involves learning a relationship between two stimuli, whereas

operant conditioning involves learning a relationship between the organism's behavior

and the consequences of that behavior.

Kinds of Learned Behaviour

 There are disagreements on the way the various categories of learning are set.

 The six types of learned behavior are habituation, sensitization, operant conditioning,

classical conditioning, Latent learning and Insight learning.

Habituation

 It is the simplest type of learning.

 Habituation is a decrease in response to a harmless stimulus when that stimulus is presented

repeatedly.

 For example, when an object passes overhead, a young gull chick tries to hide. As the chick

grows older, and as parents, other common birds, or falling leaves pass over the chick‟s

head without consequence, the youngster learns not to react.

 It can occur at different levels in the nervous system.

 Sensory systems may stop sending signals.

 The brain perceives the stimulus but decides no longer to pay attention.

Sensitisation

 An increase in the response to a harmless stimulus when that stimulus occurs after a harmful

stimulus.

i. Peripheral sensitization: An increase in responsiveness of the peripheral ends of sensory

neuron (nerve cell) that responds to potentially damaging stimuli by sending signals to the

spinal cord and brain.

21
 ii. Central sensitization: It is an increase in the excitability of neurons within the central

nervous system, so that normal inputs begin to produce abnormal responses. Central

sensitization involves both a heightened sensitivity to pain and the sensation of touch.

Classical conditioning

 Classical conditioning was introduced into the study of learning by the Russian physiologist

Ivan Pavlov and published his results in 1903.

 Pavlov recognized that learning frequently consists of becoming responsive to a stimulus

that originally was ineffective.

 It is the modification of innate response through an association of neutral stimuli with

biologically significant stimuli in eliciting the response.

 It forms an association between two stimuli (US and CS).

 It doesn‟t explain how we develop new behaviours.

 First demonstrated by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1927).

E.g. Salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs.

 Classical conditioning occurs in nature as well as in artificial conditions. For example, a

crow learns to associate the sight of shiny, broken eggshells on the beach with the presence

of newly hatched gull chicks and swoops down for a tasty meal.

 The intensity or probability of occurrence of a conditioned response decreases if the CS is

repeatedly presented without the US. This process is known as extinction.

 Extinction is an important adaptive mechanism; it would be maladaptive for an animal

to continue to respond to cues in the environment that are no longer significant.

 The available evidence indicates that extinction is not the same as forgetting, but that

instead something new is learned.

 Moreover, what is learned is not simply that the CS no longer precedes the US, but that

the CS now signals that the US will not occur.

22
Operant conditioning

 Operant conditioning can be considered as the formation of a predictive relationship

between a stimulus and a behavior. It forms an association between behaviour and a

consequence. It is also called trial–and–error learning.

 An animal associates some action or operation (the “operant”) with a punishment or

reward.

 A dog, for example, learns to associate a cat‟s hiss and arched back with a painful

scratch on the nose.

 Operant conditioning involves behaviors that occur either spontaneously or without an

identifiable stimulus.

 In general, behaviors that are rewarded tend to be repeated, whereas behaviors followed by

aversive, though not necessarily painful, consequences (punishment or negative

reinforcement) are usually not repeated.

 Consequences may affect behaviour by increasing it (reinforcement) or by decreasing it

(punishment)

 Learners actively participate in the process.

 It was first investigated by Thorndike but later refined & extended by B F Skinner (1938)

 American psychologist B. F. Skinner investigated operant conditioning by placing a rat in a

box with a lever.

 As the rat explored the box, the rat eventually pressed the lever, which delivered a food

pellet. After several accidental pressings, the rat learned to press the lever deliberately

for food. Skinner thought that nearly any behavior could be “conditioned,” or trained.

Shaping: A procedure in which reinforcers guide behaviour closer towards target behaviour

through successive approximations.

23
Latent Learning

 When we think about the learning process, we often focus only on learning that is

immediately obvious.

 But not all learning is immediately apparent. Sometimes learning only becomes evident

when we need to utilize it. According to psychologists, this "hidden" learning that only

manifests itself when reinforcement is offered is known as latent learning.

 Latent learning is a form of learning that is not immediately expressed in an overt response;

it occurs without obvious reinforcement to be applied later.

 It is not apparent as it takes place.

 The term latent learning was coined by psychologist Edward Tolman during his research

with rats although the first observations of this phenomenon were made earlier by researcher

Hugh Blodgett.

 Consider, for example, your knowledge of various routes in your hometown. Every day you

travel a variety of routes and learn the locations of different businesses in your town.

However, this learning is latent because you are not using it most of the time. It is only

when you need to find a specific location such as the nearest coffee shop or bus stop that

you are required to draw on and demonstrate what you have learned.

Insight learning

 It involves the ability to solve a problem not previously encountered by the individual in a

way that is not dictated by instinct.

 It involves finding solutions to problems that are not based on actual experience.

 The most advanced type of learned behaviour.

 Early animal studies were conducted by Wolfgang Kohler.

24
 An example of problem solving can be a chimpanzee uses a tool to get termites out of a

nest. This behavior may be learned from watching a parent, may be a result of trial–and

error, or a combination of several learning mechanisms.

 Another example, if a chimpanzee enters a room with boxes scattered on the floor and sees a

bunch of bananas tied to the ceiling; the animal will arrange the boxes to form a platform in

order to retrieve the bananas.

 The third example, researchers placed a jar containing a fish in a tank with an octopus. The

octopus used its arms to unscrew the lid, removed the fish, and then discarded the jar and

lid. This type of behavior cannot be considered instinctive, because boxes and jars are not

in the evolutionary history of these species. The behavior occurred without trial–and–error,

as if the animal used reasoning to develop an insight into how to solve the problem.

25
 EXAMPLES OF BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS

Reproductive behavior

 Elaborate behaviors have evolved around the process of reproduction in many animals.

 These behaviors often differ between males and females.

 Differences generally center around attracting or competing for a mate.

 Reproductive behaviors may help animals recognize members of the same species, or

members of the opposite sex. They may also be indicators of good health.

Sexual Selection

 Animals generally choose mates based on certain traits or behaviors.

 This tendency creates a process called sexual selection. Traits or behaviors that increase an

individual‟s ability to acquire a mate will appear with increased frequency in a population.

The female bowerbird chose this male based on his ability to build and decorate an

attractive bower. His offspring will probably build bowers in a similar way.

 Another means of attracting a mate involves certain behaviors, called courtship. In some

species, courtship can include a complex series of behaviors called rituals. Most courtship

rituals consist of specific signals and responses that indicate willingness to mate.

 Courtship is a behavior that animals perform before mating.

 It allows male and female members of a species to recognize each other.

 It stimulates males and females so they are ready to mate at the same time.

 It prevents attempts at inbreeding between different species.

 It helps to strengthen already established pair bonds.

 It involves a few chemical, visual or auditory stimuli, or it may be a complex series of

acts.

26
  It is innate & consists of a pre–programmed set of FAPs in response to a key stimulus.

Courtship rituals are instinctive behaviors that are performed the same way by all

members of a population and that may help animals identify receptive mates of the same

species.

 During courtship, animals produce signals to communicate with potential mates and with

other members of their own sex. A stimulus–response chain sometimes occurs, in which the

behavior of one individual in turn releases a behavior by another individual.

 Chemical signals also mediate interactions between males and females. Pheromones,

chemical messengers used for communication between individuals of the same species,

serve as sex attractants among other functions in many animals.

 Even the human egg produces a chemical attractant to communicate with sperm!

 The methods of communication that are used to attract a mate include pheromones, touch

and courtship songs

 In most species the males are more colorful & perform courtship displays to attract a mate.

Mating Systems

 Mating systems increase the likelihood that young will survive.

 Male polygamy (more than one female), monogamy, and female polygamy (more than one

male) are reproductive strategies that are determined primarily by the amount and type of

parental care required by the young.

 Monogamy is favored in situations in which there are advantages to both parents raising the

young. In birds, for example, it would be difficult for one parent to protect the nest and the

hatchlings while also providing enough food for the young. This type of situation may

explain why birds tend to be monogamous.

27
Parental Behavior

 Parental investment is the time and energy an individual must spend to produce and nurture

offspring.

 The benefit of parental care is that it increases the likelihood that young will survive to

adulthood.

 The costs are that parental care can generally only be provided for a small number of young

because of the large energy investment by the parent.

 Usually, females invest more in parental care than males do. In mammals like the whales,

the female carries the young within her body during development, and after birth the young

must nurse. In some species, the male provides the majority of parental investment. Male

seahorses, for example, carry the eggs until they hatch.

Territorial behaviour

 A territory is an area that an animal or a group of animals occupies and defends from other

members of the same species.

 It is found in nearly every species of animal and males are usually the territorial sex.

 This behavior increases the likelihood that the young of territorial animals will survive and

inherit traits that promote territoriality.

 Natural selection can reinforce territorial behavior. When animals space themselves out,

they do not compete for the same resources. It prevents overcrowding by maintaining an

optimum distance among members of a population.

 Territories are typically used for feeding, mating, rearing young or combinations of these

activities.

28
 An animal establishes a territory in many ways, including marking the boundaries with urine

or visual cues, and claiming an area with vocal signals. Territorial animals will threaten or

attack intruders.

 Animals may be territorial under certain circumstances. For example, the bowerbird only

builds and defends his territory during breeding season.

Defending territory

 Animals often defend territories that contain food, shelter, and potential mates.

 Marking a territory (Figure 3a), threats (Figure 3b), ritual fighting and actual fighting.

 Fighting is usually a last resort to protect a territory.

 Fighting only happens in overcrowded conditions where resources are scarce.

 It leads to a more balanced and biologically fit population.

Figure 3a. A dog marking its territory Figure 3b. A lion threatening an intruder

Why do animals defend their territories?

 Defending territories is an instinctive behavior.

 It improves the survival rate of an animal‟s offspring.

29
Social behaviour

 Social behavior can be defined as any kind of interaction between two or more animals,

usually of the same species.

 Interactions among organisms of the same species.

 It includes courtship and mating, caring for the young, claiming territories, protecting each

other, and getting food.

 Many insects, fish, birds, and mammals live in social groups in which information is

communicated between group members. For example, some individuals in mammalian

societies serve as “guards.” When a predator appears, the guards give an alarm call, and

group members respond by seeking shelter.

 Social insects, such as ants and honeybees, produce alarm pheromones that trigger attack

behavior. Ants also deposit trail pheromones between the nest and a food source to induce

cooperation during foraging.

Social Groups

 Social groups have evolved in the animal kingdom because there are benefits to living in a

group.

 These benefits can include protection from predators and more success in foraging. For

example, fish on the outer edges of a school assume most of the danger of predation. The

fish swimming on the edges shift constantly, so most individuals are not exposed to danger

for a long time. Lions hunting cooperatively can bring down large prey much more

efficiently than lions hunting alone.

 There are also disadvantages to living in a social group. For example, there is often

increased competition for food, mates, and other resources. The risk of spreading disease is

also higher within a social group than it would be among a population of nonsocial animals.

30
 One species that exemplifies both the benefits and disadvantages of social groups is the

blue–gill sunfish. During mating season, bluegills nest close together. The larger number of

individuals helps provide protection against predators. However, disadvantages include

competition during courtship, theft of eggs by nonbreeding males, and possibly transmission

of disease.

Altruism

 Occasionally, one member of a social group acts in a way that benefits other members of the

group while putting the individual at a disadvantage. This type of behavior is called

altruism.

 One example of altruism can be seen in the ground squirrel found in North America. These

animals live in large colonies. If one member of the colony sees a predator, it will give a

high–pitched alarm call as indicated in figure 4. This call warns other members of the

colony to hide while putting the animal that calls at risk.

Figure 4. A squirrel engaging in altruistic behavior

 Another example of altruism occurs in animal societies in which the workers are sterile.

Bees, ants, termites, and naked mole rats are all examples of animals that live in this type of

society.

31
 Usually, members of a society are related to each other and share a large proportion of their

genes. Therefore, helping a relative survive increases the chance that the genes an individual

shares with that relative will be passed to the next generation.

 This type of natural selection is called kin selection.

Why is social behavior important?

 Social behavior provides advantages that promote survival of the species and it includes:

 formation of stable groups

 improve the effectiveness of reproduction

 successful foraging

 more effective predator protection

 increased chance of surviving migration

 increase the chance of surviving extreme conditions

 The costs of social behavior include:

 increased competition

 risk of spreading disease.

Social behaviour in Bees

 Bees exhibit eusociality.

 Bees are haplodiploid. Therefore, each female has two alleles at a locus, while each male

has only one.

Features of eusociality

 Eusocial insects are recognized by three main characteristics:

1. The mother, along with individuals that may or may not be directly related, conducts

cooperative care of young.

32
 2. A reproductive division of labor evolves from sterile castes which often have certain

propensities or characteristics associated with helping behavior.

3. There is an overlapping of generations which allows for the older generations of

offspring to help related, younger generations.

 There are three different types or castes of bees in a nest.

1. The queen – the only truly reproductively active female (1st caste)

2. Workers – non–reproductively active females (2nd caste)

3. Drones – reproductively active males (3rd caste)

Communication in Bees

 Honeybees have an extremely complex dance language that directs nest mates to rich nectar

sources.

 The queen secretes powerful pheromones that control the behaviour of the workers.

 Foragers perform a „wag–dance‟ in the form of a „figure of eight‟ as seen in figure 5.

 The angle of the dance away from the vertical corresponds with the angle of the nectar from

the Sun.

 The length of the „straight–run‟ part of the dance is proportional to the distance from the

nest.

 Foraging bees also use sound to inform other bees about the distance of the source.

 The duration of sounds is directly correlated with the distance to the nectar source.

Figure 5. Waggle Dancing

33
 GLOSSARY

Agonistic behaviour: It is any social behaviour related to fighting. The term has broader

meaning than aggressive behaviour because it includes threats, displays, retreats, placation, and

conciliation. Agonistic behaviour is seen in many animal species because resources including

food, shelter, and mates are often limited.

All–or–none response: The all–or–none response of a nerve or muscle fiber means that the

nerve or muscle responds completely or not at all to a stimulus.

Anthropomorphism: Describing animal behavior in terms of human mental processes.

Associative learning: The process by which someone learns an association between two

stimuli, or a behavior and a stimulus. The two forms of associative learning are classical and

operant conditioning.

Attachment: An aspect of the enduring relationship between a human infant and its attachment

figure.

Autonomic nerves: Motor nerves designed to maintain homeostasis, Autonomic nerves are not

under conscious control.

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS): The part of the nervous system responsible for control of

the bodily functions not consciously directed, such as breathing, the heartbeat, and digestive

processes.

Autonomic reflex: Unconscious motor reflexes relayed from organs and glands to the CNS

through visceral afferent signaling.

Auxin: A growth–regulating substance produced either naturally by plants or synthetically.

Avoidance: An instrumental learning situation in which performing an action or response

prevents a noxious or aversive stimulus from occurring. It involves negative reinforcement.

34
Behaviour: The co–ordinated response of an organism to an internal or external stimulus.

Biological clock: An innate mechanism that controls the physiological activities of an organism

which change on a daily, seasonal, yearly, or other regular cycle.

Brain: An organ of soft nervous tissue contained in the skull of vertebrates, functioning as the

coordinating center of sensation and intellectual and nervous activity.

Caste: A physically distinct kind of individual with a particular function in some social insects.

Central Nervous System (CNS): The complex of nerve tissues that controls the activities of

the body. In vertebrates it comprises the brain and spinal cord.

Cerebellum: The region of the brain that coordinates muscle movement.

Cerebral cortex: The outer lining of the cerebral hemispheres.

Cerebrum: The largest and most highly developed part of the human brain. The cerebrum

stores sensory information and initiates voluntary motor activities.

Circadian rhythm: A daily activity cycle, based roughly on 24–hour intervals.

Classical conditioning: The procedure in which an initially neutral stimulus (the conditional

stimulus or CS) is repeatedly paired with an unconditional stimulus (or US). The result is that

the conditional stimulus begins to elicit a conditional response (CR). Nowadays, classical

conditioning is important as both a behavioral phenomenon and as a method used to study

simple associative learning.

Conditional response (CR): The response that is elicited by the conditional stimulus after

classical conditioning has taken place. The response is “conditional” in the sense that it depends

on the conditioning experience.

Conditional stimulus (CS): An initially neutral stimulus (like a bell, light, or tone) that begins

to elicit a conditional response after it has been paired with an unconditional stimulus.

35
Courtship behaviour: An activity that precedes and results in mating and reproduction.

Dendrites: Projections of cytoplasm that carry impulses toward the cell body.

Effector: An effector is a body structure that receives output from the control center and

produces a response or effect that changes the controlled condition. Nearly every organ or tissue

in the body can behave as an effector.

Ethology: The study of how animals behave in their natural environments, typically with an

emphasis on the evolution of the behavior.

Extinction: Reduction in the strength or probability of a learned behavior that occurs when the

conditional stimulus is presented without the unconditional stimulus (in classical conditioning)

or when the behavior is no longer reinforced (in operant or instrumental conditioning). The term

describes both the procedure and the result of the procedure. Behaviors that have been reduced

in strength through extinction are said to be “extinguished.”

Fixed action pattern: An innate sequence of behaviors that is triggered by a specific stimulus

and continues to its end without regard to immediate consequences or feedback.

Habituation: A decrease in the strength of a naturally elicited behavior that occurs through

repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus.

Imprinting: Learning in very young organisms that establishes attachment to a parent (or an

object identified as a parent; sometimes called “filial imprinting”). In “sexual imprinting,” a

similar process may influence later sexual behavior.

Innate behaviour: A behaviour that is present at birth or hatching and that has not been

changed by learning processes.

36
Insight learning: An individual‟s (possibly in chimpanzees and humans) sudden recognition

of the relationships, causes, and effects of a particular contingency or occurrence which is

apparently based on familiarity with the separate parts necessary to solve a problem.

Instinct: It is genetically preset, unlearned behaviour.

Ivan Pavlov: (1849–1936) Russian physiologist who published the first systematic observations

of classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian learning) and introduced many of the terms

that are still used to describe such conditioning today.

Jet–lag: An extreme tiredness and other effects felt by a person after a long flight across

different time zones.

Key stimulus: A stimulus (sign stimulus, releaser) that is adequate to activate an innate

releasing mechanism.

Kinesis: An organism‟s change in rate of random movement (linear or angular velocity) as a

result of stimulus intensity, but not stimulus direction; kinesis is distinguished from taxis.

Latent learning: It is an acquisition of neutral information in the absence of external

reinforcement or punishment. In latent learning, the acquisition of information does not lead to

an immediate change in behavior.

Learning: The strengthening of existing responses or the formation of new responses to

existing stimuli that occurs because of practice or repetition.

Negative reinforcement: A situation in which an operant behavior is strengthened

(“reinforced”) because it removes or prevents a negative (aversive) stimulus.

Operant conditioning: It is a learning principle in which environmental contingencies – or

more specifically, discriminative stimuli (antecedents) influencing its consequences – are

controlled and manipulated to change behavior. B.F. Skinner coined the term operant

37
conditioning; it means roughly changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement which is given

after the desired response.

Operant: A behavior that is controlled by its consequences. The canonical example is the rat‟s

lever–pressing, which is controlled by the food–pellet reinforcer.

Orientational behaviour: The positioning of the body or of a behavioural sequence, with

respect to some aspect of the external environment; it includes simple postural preferences as

well as complex navigational behaviours.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): All parts of the nervous system, excluding brain and spinal

cord that relay information between the central nervous system and other parts of the body.

Pheromone: It is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in

members of the same species.

Phototropism: It is the growth of an organism which responds to a light stimulus. It is most

often observed in plants, but can also occur in other organisms such as fungi.

Positive reinforcement: An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the

behavior is followed by a positive stimulus or reinforcer. The behavior typically increases in

strength.

Punisher: An aversive stimulus that decreases the strength or probability of an operant

behavior when it is made a consequence of the response.

Punishment: An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the behavior is

followed by a negative or aversive stimulus. The behavior typically decreases in strength.

Receptor: A receptor is a body structure that monitors changes in a controlled condition and

sends input to a control center. Typically, the input is in the form of nerve impulses or chemical

38
signals. For example, certain nerve endings in the skin sense temperature and can detect

changes, such as a dramatic drop in temperature.

Reflex action: A reflex action, differently known as a reflex, is an involuntary and nearly

instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus.

Reflex arc: The pathway mediating a reflex. There are two types of reflex arc: autonomic reflex

arc (affecting inner organs) and somatic reflex arc (affecting muscles).

Reinforcer: If a consequence systematically following an operant leads to strengthening that

operant, it is, by definition, a reinforcer. If it fails to have such an effect when observed over

time, it is not a reinforcer for that activity, for that person, in that context.

Response: Any behavior of a living organism that results from an external or internal stimulus.

Ritual fighting: It is going through all the motions of fighting without ever actually touching

each other.

Sensitization: An increase in the strength of an elicited behavior that results merely from

repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus.

Shaping: A procedure for training a new operant behavior by reinforcing behaviors that are

closer and closer to the final behavior that is desired.

Social behaviour: A behavior among two or more organisms, typically from the same species.

Social behavior is exhibited by a wide range of organisms including social bacteria, slime

moulds, social insects, social shrimp, naked mole–rats, and humans.

Somatic nervous system: It is the part of the peripheral nervous system associated with

voluntary movement of the muscles and organs and reflex movements. In the process of

voluntary movement, sensory neurons carry impulses to the brain and the spinal cord.

39
Somatic reflex: A reflex involving our special senses (eyes, ears, pressure detectors, etc.) and

produces a response by a muscle.

Spinal cord: The cylindrical bundle of nerve fibers and associated tissue that is enclosed in the

spine and connects nearly all parts of the body to the brain, with which it forms the central

nervous system.

Stimulus: A detectable change in the internal or external environment, such as a change in

temperature, plasma potassium concentration, or blood pressure.

Suprachiasmatic nucleus: Each of a pair of small nuclei in the hypothalamus of the brain,

above the optic chiasma, thought to be concerned with the regulation of physiological circadian

rhythms.

Taxis: A taxis (plural taxes) is a directional movement of an organism in response to a stimulus

such as light or the presence of food.

Territory: It is the sociographical area that an animal of a particular species consistently

defends against conspecifics (or, occasionally, animals of other species). Animals that defend

territories in this way are referred to as territorial.

Tropism: A response of a plant organ or part to an external stimulus, usually in the direction of

the stimulus.

Unconditional response (UR): In classical conditioning, an innate response that is elicited by a

stimulus in the absence of conditioning.

Unconditional stimulus (US): In classical conditioning, the stimulus that elicits the response

before conditioning occurs.

40
Zeitgeber: A periodic environmental stimulus to which an animal‟s biological rhythm is

entrained. The term “zeitgeber” is usually restricted to include stimuli in an animal‟s external

environment.

41
 Selected Readings

Abebe,G(ed.).2006.Biology: Student text for Grade 11. Ministry of Education, Addis Ababa,

Ethiopia. pp.145–172.

Alemu,A. 1992. Introductory Basic Biology. pp 192–202.

Gould,J.L.1982.Ethology: The Mechanisms and Evolution of Behaviour. First edition.W.W.

Norton and Company.New York.

Hall,M.A. and Lesser,M.S. 1966. Review Text in Biology. AMSCO School publications,Inc.,

New York.pp. 239–251.

McFarland,D. 1999. Animal Behaviour: Psychology, Ethology and Evolution. Third edition.

Pearson Education Limited, England.

Pavlov,I.P. 1927. Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the

Cerebral Cortex. Anrep, G.V. (transl). Oxford University Press, London.

Postlethwait,J.H. and Hopson,J.L. 2006. Modern Biology. Holt,Rinehart and Winston. Texas,

USA. pp 1004–1015.

Raven,P.H. and Johnson,G.B. 1988. Understanding Biology. International edition. Times

Mirror/Mosby College Publishing,Missouri.pp 785–799.

Ritter,B., Coombs,F.C., Drysdale,R.B., Gardner,G.A. and Lunn, D.T. 1996. Biology. British

Columbia edition.Nelson Canada,Ontario.pp 814–891.

Tinbergen,N. 1951. The Study of Instinct. Clarendon Press.

von Frisch,K.,R . 1953. The dancing bees: An account of the life and senses of the honey bee.

Methuen Publishing.

42
 CPS Exams (2003–2007)

1. What is the co–ordinated response of an organism to an internal or external stimulus called?

(A) Effector (C) Behaviour

(B) Response (D) Co–ordination

2. When a dog is trained to catch a ball, you give the animal a food reinforcer each time it

approaches the ball until finally the dog mouths and grabs the ball. What does this refer to?

(A) Sensitization (C) Reflex action

(B) Shaping (D) Classical conditioning

3. In classical conditioning, what is the natural and unlearned reaction to an unconditioned

stimulus known as?

(A) Unconditioned Stimulus (C) Unconditioned Response

(B) Conditioned Stimulus (D) Conditioned Response

4. Choose the list that includes two types of learned behaviour and one type of innate

behaviour.

(A) Taxes, instincts and imprinting

(B) Conditioning, taxes and instincts

(C) Taxes, imprinting and conditioning

(D) Habituation, reflexes, sensitization

5. In humans, which gland and hormone are responsible for controlling the active versus

sleepy circadian rhythm?

(A) Parathyroid gland and PTH (C) Pituitary gland and oxytocin

(B) Pancreas and insulin (D) Pineal gland and melatonin

6. Which of the following behaviors would be classified as a reflex?

(A) Imprinting in Geese (C) A spider spinning a web

(B) Sneezing in humans (D) A dog barking at a stranger

43
7. What kind of behaviour is displayed when Euglena swims towards areas of increased light

intensity?

(A) Positive kinesis (C) Positive phototropism

(B) Positive phototaxis (D) Positive reflex

8. Which of these organisms would be most likely to accomplish a task involving insight

learning?

(A) Snake (C) Termite

(B) Sheep (D) Chimpanzee

9. Of the three castes of bees in a nest, which one is the only truly reproductively active

female?

(A) The Drones (C) The Workers

(B) The Queen (D) The Foragers

10. Which of the following is NOT a component any behaviour must have?

(A) Receptor (C) Stimulus

(B) Effector (D) Coordinating system

11. Which of the following is false of a eusocial species of animal?

(A) There are no overlapping generations.

(B) They are organized into a caste system.

(C) There is a clearly defined division of labor.

(D) The young are raised through cooperative care.

12. One of the following behaviours is NOT instinctive.

(A) Nest–building by birds (C) Weaving a web by spiders

(B) Kinesis of woodlice (D) Imprinting in geese

44
13. One of the following is circadian rhythm.

(A) Migration in swallows (C) Hibernation in hedgehogs

(B) Coat growth in arctic foxes (D) Sleep–wake cycle in humans

14. Identify the one which is associative learning.

(A) Habituation (C) Sensitization

(B) Insight learning (D) Classical conditioning

15. Which type of learning is NOT apparent as it takes place?

(A) Latent learning (C) Insight learning

(B) Operant conditioning (D) Associative learning

16. In Pavlov‟s experiment of the classical conditioning of dogs, what did the ringing of the bell

represent?

(A) Conditioned stimulus (C) Conditioned response

(B) Unconditioned response (D) Unconditioned stimulus

17. What is an activity that precedes and results in mating and reproduction known as?

(A) Courtship behaviour (C) Territorial behaviour

(B) Orientational behaviour (D) Aggressive behaviour

18. Which type of learning happens in a narrow window of time shortly after birth?

(A) Imprinting (C) Reflex action

(B) Sensitization (D) Conditioning

19. Prairie dogs retreat into their holes at the sound of approaching human footsteps. When this

occurs many times and the prairie dogs know the footsteps are not a threat, they no longer

retreat at the sound of footsteps. What type of behaviour is this?

(A) Reflex (C) Sensitization

(B) Habituation (D) Conditioning

45
20. Which of the following terms embraces all the rest?

(A) Reflex action (C) Innate behaviour

(B) Orientational behaviour (D) Instinctive behaviour

21. The best definition of behavior from a biological viewpoint is

(A) The responses or reactions made by an organism to any situation.

(B) The reactions of an animal in response to external or internal stimuli.

(C) A manner of acting or observable response a person makes to any situation.

(D) The coordinated response of an organism to an internal or external stimulus.

22. Which of the following groups of scientists are closely associated with ethology?

(A) Watson, Crick, and Franklin (C) Pasteur, Koch, and Lister

(B) Kohler, Lorenz, and Tinbergen (D) Hardy, Weinberg, and Castle

23. In Pavlov's experiment on dogs, which was the conditioned stimulus?

(A) Salivation (C) Bell

(B) Food (D) Bell and food

24. Which of the following is the simplest form of learning?

(A) Imprinting (C) Habituation

(B) Conditioning (D) Sensitization

25. The tendency to assign human feelings, emotions and reasoning to animals is

(A) Psychology (C) Behaviourism

(B) Ethology (D) Anthropomorphism

26. Identify the WRONG statement about reflexes.

(A) They are necessary for organisms to survive.

(B) They are automatic response of nerve stimulation.

(C) They are responses over which we have no control.

(D) None of the above

46
27. Which of the following types of learning works on the principle of punishment or reward?

(A) Latent learning (C) Imprinting

(B) Operant conditioning (D) Classical conditioning

28. Which of the following is the most complex form of innate behaviour?

(A) Instinct (C) Reflex

(B) Orientational (D) Insight

29. Which of the following type of learned behaviour is based on thought and reasoning?

(A) Insight learning (C) Latent learning

(B) Habituation (D) Exploratory learning

30. After a painful blow, even relatively light pressure feels painful. What behavior does this

exemplify?

(A) Sensitization (C) Conditioning

(B) Habituation (D) Reflex

31. Which of the following involve the whole organism moving in response to a stimulus, but

not in a directional way?

(A) Instinct (C) Kineses

(B) Taxes (D) Reflexes

32. Any space that an animal defends against intruders of the same species is

(A) Territory (C) Nest

(B) Habitat (D) Home range

33. Which of the following terms refers to the movement of a whole organism towards, or away

from, a stimulus which comes from a particular direction?

(A) Tropism (C) Taxis

(B) Kinesis (D) Migration

47
34. A large hive may contain more than 50,000 bees and they are all descended from one

individual. Which one?

(A) The queen (C) The worker

(B) The drone (D) The king

35. Which of the following types of learned behaviour occurs when a stimulus is repeated many

times and nothing happens?

(A) Sensitisation (C) Conditioning

(B) Imprinting (D) Habituation

36. Select the type of behaviour which is innate.

(A) Sensitization (C) Imprinting

(B) Habituation (D) Conditioning

37. Which learned behaviour requires the animal to form an association between two stimuli?

(A) Latent learning (C) Classical conditioning

(B) Habituation (D) Insight learning

38. A laboratory rat is placed in a box that contains a lever. In moving around the box, the rat

accidentally bumps into the lever causing a food pellet into the box. Soon the rat is

purposely pushing the lever to receive the food. What type of learned behaviour does this

exemplify?

(A) Operant conditioning (C) Insight learning

(B) Latent learning (D) Classical conditioning

39. Which of the following behaviour patterns allows members of a species to recognize each

other?

(A) Ritual fighting (C) Territorial behaviour

(B) Courtship behaviour (D) Waggle dance

48
40. Which of the following is an example of a fixed action pattern?

(A) A fish feeding on larger insects when prey are abundant.

(B) A chick pecking at the red spot on a parent‟s moving beak.

(C) A whale migrating long distances to its feeding territory.

(D) A songbird learning a song after listening to a song of its species.

41. Woodlouse activity decreases as humidity increases i.e. with increased humidity there is an

increase in the percentage time that the woodlice will remain stationary. What type of

behaviour is this?

(A) Kinesis (C) Taxis

(B) Tropism (D) Imprinting

42. Which of the following happens if a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without

the unconditioned stimulus following conditioning?

(A) Higher–order conditioning (C) Approximation

(B) Extinction (D) Post conditioning

43. Which of the following is a response from the environment that decreases the likelihood of a

behaviour being repeated?

(A) Punisher (C) Reinforcer

(B) Neutral operant (D) Consequence

44. In a honeybee colony, which one of the following is the duty of the drones?

(A) Foraging (C) Guarding the hive

(B) Building a nest (D) Reproduction

45. Swans will follow the first moving object they see after hatching and will continue to show

this response as they mature. What is this phenomenon known as?

(A) Attachment formation (C) Imprinting

(B) Orientational behaviour (D) Operant conditioning

49
46. After encountering an electric shock, an animal may often react vigorously to a mild

stimulus that it would previously have ignored. Which learned behavior does this

exemplify?

(A) Habituation (C) Sensitization

(B) Reflex action (D) Conditioning

47. Which term refers to an innate mechanism controlling the rhythmic physiological activities

of an organism?

(A) Suprachiasmatic nucleus (C) Circadian rhythm

(B) Biological clock (D) Feedback mechanism

48. Which of the following is NOT a feature of eusociality?

(A) Presence of several generations in the colony (C) Division of labour

(B) Co–operative caring for the young (D) Intraspecific aggression

50
 UEE (1995–2007)

1. Which type of learning behaviour is promoted by the achievement of correct answers to

items in this examination? (1995)

(A) Conditioning (C) Perception

(B) Insight learning (D) Trial and error learning

2. Select the type of behaviour which is innate1. (1996)

(A) Reflex action (C) Conditioning

(B) Habituation (D) Imprinting

3. A chimpanzee concentrates to reach at a bunch of grapes hanging above its head. What kind

of behaviour is this? (1996)

(A) Insight learning (C) Associative learning

(B) Latent learning (D) Sensitization learning

4. Bugs that normally live in moist places under stones or logs become very active when

exposed to very dry conditions. For which of the following can this be an example? (1997)

(A) Taxis (C) Kinesis

(B) Imprinting (D) Habituation

5. Which of the following is NOT a learned behaviour? (1997)

(A) Instinctive (C) Conditioned

(B) Imprinting (D) Habituation

6. What do we call the behaviour of an animal learns not to respond to a stimulus that is

repeated a number of times without any effect? (1998)

(A) Habituation (C) Sensitization

(B) Operant conditioning (D) Associative learning

1
In the textbook which was in use starting from 1993 to 2002, imprinting was listed under learned behaviour.
However, the current textbook (2003 – ) considers imprinting as an instinctive beahviour.

51
7. Which of the following types of animal behaviour does not require prior experience? (1999)

(A) Imprinting (C) Operant conditioning

(B) Habituation (D) Insight learning

8. A student who had encountered a snake on his way to school jumped suddenly when he later

saw a piece of cord lying across his way. What behavior does this exemplify? (1999)

(A) Habituation (C) Sensitization

(B) Association (D) Stimulation

9. Which one of the following types of learned behaviours requires a critical period to learn in

the animal‟s life? (2000)

(A) Imprinting (C) Insight learning

(B) Habituation (D) Operant conditioning

10. A chick that just emerged from an incubator tended to follow the person that it saw first.

Which one of the following is the correct term for this kind of animal behaviour? (2000)

(A) Innate (C) Imprinting

(B) Kinesis (D) Positive taxis

11. A goose was observed rolling the egg back to its nest. What kind of behaviour is this?

(2001)

(A) Tropism (C) Innate behaviour

(B) Learned behaviour (D) Social behaviour

12. We do not usually notice that we are wearing clothes even though the clothes are

continuously touching our body. To which type of learned behaviours does this belong?

(2001)

(A) Innate behaviour (C) Habituation

(B) Imprinted behaviour (D) Operant conditioning

52
13. In a honeybee colony, which one of the following is the duty of the queen? (2002)

(A) Foraging (C) Guarding the hive

(B) Rearing the young (D) Reproduction

14. In Pavlov‟s classical conditioning experiments with dogs, which one of the fo llowing

is the conditioned stimulus? (2002)

(A) The sight of food (C) The sound of the bell

(B) The smell of food (D) The salivation of the dog

15. When is a behaviour referred to as stereotyped? When: (2002)

(A) An animal responds similarly to all stimuli

(B) All members of a species respond in the same way to a stimulus

(C) A behaviour is easily earned

(D) An animal ignores a stimulus because it is familiar with it

16. Suppose a girl, after watching her mother making „injera‟ on several occasions, successfully

made it herself, what type of learning is this? (2002)

(A) Sensitization (C) Habituation

(B) Imprinting (D) Latent learning

17. Which one of the following disciplines is studied in ethology? (2003)

(A) Heredity (C) Reproduction

(B) Physiology (D) Behaviour

18. Which one of the following is true about an innate behaviour? (2003)

(A) It is non–adaptive behaviour.

(B) It is learned behaviour.

(C) Members of a species behave similarly.

(D) It is environmentally determined

53
19. The unicellular organism, Euglena, swims using its flagellum towards areas of increased

light intensity. What is this kind of response to stimulus called? (2003)

(A) Negative kinesis (C) Negative phototaxis

(B) Positive kinesis (D) Positive phototaxis

20. In Pavlov‟s classical conditioning experiment on dogs, which one of the following is

the unconditioned response? (2003)

(A) The sound of the bell before presenting food.

(B) The sight of food from far away.

(C) The salivation of the dog at the sight of food.

(D) The salivation of the dog at the sound of the bell.

21. It is said that a goat mother accepts and nurses as her own kid any young that she smells at a

certain critical period, and rejects all others. This is an example of: (2003)

(A) Habituation (C) Insight learning

(B) Imprinting (D) Sensitization

22. Among the following, which one is a learned behaviour? (2003)

(A) Reflex action (C) Imprinting

(B) Habituation (D) Fixed action pattern

23. With which of the following hibernation is most associated in animals? (2003)

(A) Migration (C) Annual biological cycle

(B) Availability of food in the store (D) Daily biological cycle

24. Wood lice increase their movement in different directions in response to increased light

intensity. This is an example of which of the following? (2003)

(A) Positive taxis (C) Kinesis

(B) Negative taxis (D) Phototropism

54
25. What is the role of the worker honey bee just after it emerges? (2004)

(A) Forage for nectar, pollen and water (C) Guard the hive

(B) Clean out dirty honeycomb (D) Build honeycomb

26. During seasons of reproduction, the males of some species of birds produce colorful feathers

to attract females. What do ethologists call this method of communication in animals?

(2004)

(A) Visual (C) Auditory

(B) Chemical (D) Touch

27. Which of the following types of movements in response to a stimulus has no specific

direction? (2004)

(A) Taxis (C) Gravitropism

(B) Kinesis (D) Phototropism

28. In the classical conditioning experiment performed by Pavlov on dogs, which of the

following alternatives is the unconditioned stimulus? (2004)

(A) The sound of the bell

(B) The smell of the food

(C) The salivation at the sound of the bell

(D) The salivation at the smell of the food.

29. Why is that the woodlice are typically found under logs, stones, bark and amongst leaf

litter? (2004)

(A) To be sheltered in a dry windy environment.

(B) To run away from the area where the air is humid.

(C) To make sure that they are in the hottest place all the time.

(D) To reduce the rate at which water is lost from their bodies.

55
30. Which of the following do bees use to inform other bees about the location and distance of a

new source of nectar they discover? (2005)

(A) Pheromones (C) Buzzing noise

(B) Waggle dance (D) Vibration of wings

31. Which of the following is NOT classified as a learned behaviour? (2005)

(A) Insight (C) Latent

(B) Innate (D) Conditioned

32. What do we call the learned behavior if a mouse that had just escaped from the mouth of a

cat jumped violently at a slight touch by a trivial object? (2005)

(A) Latent learning (C) Conditioning

(B) Sensitization (D) Imprinting

33. The group of Ethiopian wolf which does NOT contribute to territory marking with

their urine containing pheromones is______________. (2005)

(A) Adult males (C) Sub–adult males

(B) Adult females (D) Sub–adult females

34. To what kind of animal behavior can the spinning of a web by a spider be classified? (2005)

(A) Learned behaviour (C) Instinctive behaviour

(B) Experiential behaviour (D) Accidental behaviour

35. An experimental animal stopped responding to a stimulus that has been repeated so many

times. What type of learned behaviour is this? (2006)

(A) Latent learning (C) Imprinting

(B) Habituation (D) Operant conditioning

36. Behaviour that is repeated on a daily basis is referred to as: (2006)

(A) Lunar (C) Circannual

(B) Circadian (D) Seasonal

56
37. Which of the following is more true about the male of the honey bee? (2006)

(A) It has no father (C) It is sterile

(B) It is diploid (D) It regulates the colony

38. In which of the activities of the honey bee colony are worker bees involved? (2006)

(A) Laying eggs (C) Reproductive function

(B) Serving as queens (D) Taking care of the larvae

39. Which of the following behavioural biologists is known for his study about imprinting

behaviour in animals? (2007)

(A) W. Kohler (C) Ivan Pavlov

(B) B.F. Skinner (D) Konrad Lorenz

40. Baby ostriches tend to follow the first moving object that they see as they hatch out of the

eggs. What kind of animal behaviour does this demonstrate? (2007)

(A) Positive taxis (C) Positive kinesis

(B) Innate behaviour (D) Learned behaviour

41. Which of the following is NOT true about instinctive behaviour? (2007)

(A) It can be developed further through learning.

(B) It is triggered by a key stimulus.

(C) It has a fixed action pattern.

(D) It is adaptive for the species.

42. Suppose when you enter a room you notice an unpleasant smell which you eventually forget

about its presence, what is this behaviour called? (2007)

(A) Latent learning (C) Habituation

(B) Insight learning (D) Operant conditioning

57
43. Which one of the following is an example of an orientational innate behaviour? (2007)

(A) Kinesis in woodlice

(B) Blinking of the eyes

(C) Sudden withdrawal of limbs from hot object

(D) Nest building by weaver birds

44. Which hormone promotes human sleepfulness in darkness and controls the sleep–wake

cycle? (2007)

(A) Insulin (C) Melatonin

(B) Adrenaline (D) Thyroxine

45. In Pavlov‟s experiment on the classical conditioning of dogs, what does the reaction of the

dogs to the sound of the bell represent? (2007)

(A) The conditioned stimulus (C) The unconditioned stimulus

(B) The conditioned response (D) The unconditioned response

58
 ANSWERS
Answers for CPS Exams (2003–2007)

1. C 13. D 25. D 37. C

2. B 14. D 26. D 38. A
3. C 15. A 27. B 39. B
4. D 16. A 28. A 40. B
5. D 17. A 29. A 41. A
6. B 18. A 30. A 42. B
7. B 19. B 31. C 43. A
8. D 20. C 32. A 44. D
9. B 21. D 33. C 45. C
10. C 22. B 34. A 46. C
11. A 23. C 35. D 47. B
12. B 24. C 36. C 48. D

Answers for UEE (1995–2007)

1. D 13. D 25. B 37. A

2. A,D 14. C 26. A 38. D
3. A 15. B 27. B 39. D
4. C 16. D 28. B 40. B
5. A,B 17. D 29. D 41. A
6. A 18. C 30. B 42. C
7. A 19. D 31. B 43. A
8. C 20. C 32. B 44. C
9. A 21. B 33. D 45. B
10. C 22. B 34. C
11. C 23. C 35. B
12. C 24. C 36. B

59