LEARNING IS COOL!

LEARNING
DEFINITIONS:
Acquisition (and sometimes storage-this is memory!) of
environmental information (experience) such that subsequent
behaviour may be altered
The adaptive modification of behaviour based on experience
How is information stored?
•Permanent or semi-permanent changes in inter-nerve (enhance
ment for connection of nerves) connections or in the storage of
certain molecules, possibly via phosphorylation.
•Another example is through enlargement of parts of the
brain--the hippocampus in marsh tits (example next slides).
This is a gene/environment interaction!

Any enduring or relatively permanent change in behaviour that

occurs as a result of experience or practice (Matthews and
Matthews 1978)
An impressive learner! Clark’s nutcracker holding a seed in its bill that it
is about to store underground.
Have been documented to store as many as 33,000 seeds in up to 5000
separate caches as far as 25 km away from nest site. Recovers up to 80%
of stored seeds over the months of winter after fall storage.
It is definitely memory because inspection behaviour of cache locations
occurs even when the food (olfactory and visual cues) is removed.
 Top group was given a chance to store whole sunflower seeds
Bottom group was fed ground
sunflower seeds

Learning and anatomical changes in the brain in Marsh Tits (Clayton and
Krebs)
Spatial learning by chickadees
Experience improves efficiency of food
relocation in Black-capped
chickadees, and selection for this
learning ability has been stronger in
areas where the payoff is greater
 Types of learning
Habituation--a gradual lessening in response to a stimulus as experience finds
it to be harmless or unavoidable--this is not neural adaptation or motor
fatigue; it functions to inhibit or reduce the instances of activating innate
releasing mechanisms unnecessarily. E.g. male Thynnine wasp.

e.g. Some wild animals can be tamed by repeated handling if the experience
of being handled is not accompanied by harm.
Associative Learning (operant conditioning)-the ability to form associations
between formerly meaningless stimuli and reinforcements such as reward
or punishment.
The ability to use different types of signals to condition responses varies
from animal to animal, e.g, the white rat and taste versus sound associated
nausea This can also be considered trial and error learning – it
with
might take more than one experience to enable the
learning.
However, there are
constraints, in the
case of the rat
and types of
operants that can
trigger related
learning
X
Latent or exploratory learning--occurs without apparent
reinforcement, but most usually found in situations where
animals learn the local characteristics of their home range--
this usually increases the chance of biological success.
Male meadow voles
are polygynous and
their home
territories overlap
4 or 5 home
territories of
females so learning
spatial
characteristics
would be expected
to be under
stronger selection.
Monogamous
prairie voles are
similar
males and females
between
Increasing complexity of maze
Female BHC spends time finding nests of host birds and returning
later to lay parasitic eggs-thus have stronger learning ability reflected
by larger volume of hippocampus.
 Some Characteristics of Learning
When is learning likely to be positively selected?
• For long lived animals that have a chance to use
their experience e.g elephants-young members of matrilines
learn the location of grazing and water sources that may change
from year to year with the long term drought cycles in Africa.
• For animals in unpredictable environments
where the probability of doing the right thing by instinct is
low--that is, some kind of sampling is necessary
• Also, where the cost of an initial mistake--
sampling error?--is very low.
 Learning “kin” odour” in Belding’s Ground Squirrels
Sometimes called the
armpit effect

Learning their own odour here

Time spent examining other odours
(related by genes)

These animals have oral and back scent glands they use to learn their
 Konrad Lorenz and imprinted Greylag geese

Imprinting is a type of learned behaviour, but not infinitely flexible,

i.e. circumscribed by genetic influences