Biology B3 Part 5

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  • Created by: Sam
  • Created on: 21-04-12 15:40

Based on Edexcel textbook

pg 46-47 Instinctive behaviour

A reflex response in instictive behaviour eg. pulling your hand away from something hot. This is something you don't think about. Instinctive responses are inhertited from parents and are part of natural selection (those with the best instincts survive).

Woodlice respond to the humidity of the air and amount of light to find the places most suitable for living.

Herring gull chicks begin to peck at their parents beak soon after they have hatched. The beak is a stimulus that after pecking rewards them with food as the parent soon brings up into it's mouth half-digested food. On the beak is a red spot which gets pecked more often than other area's of the beak. If the spot is covered up the chick pecks the beak less often so the red spot is a trigger for instinctive behaviour.

pg 48-49 Learned behaviour: Conditioning.

Behaviour which changes in the light of experience is learned. This is very common in pets for example a cat will soon learn that you moving towards the cupboard where their food is kept means you will feed them. A first the cat would only respond to the sight and taste of food (primary stimulus) learning about the cupboard makes the cupboard a secondary stimulus. The secondary stimulus is not directly linked to the possibility of food but the cat has learnt the association. It has become conditioned.

Pavlov was the first to study conditioning scientifically in specific he studied the production of saliva in response to food and to non-food stimuli. He found that saliva flow increased in response to food in the mouth (primary stimulus), but also to the smell of his hand before the food (secondary stimulus). After a period of presenting the dog with his personal smell then the food he found that his personal smell alone was enough for the dog to produce the same amount of saliva as if it had been given food.

He also conditioned dogs to respond to the sound of…

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