Behaviors

Instinct

Instinct is the built-in mechanism that guides the animal.  Instinct in terrestrial arthropod societies like ants is the basis of their "society," or social order.  Ants hatch with predefined roles, purposes and reactions to stimuli; or as with humans, babies know how to cry and suck on a bosom innately.  In honor of brevity, instinct is innate behavior.

Imprinting

The best example of imprinting is goslings (baby geese): geese hatch and automatically the first animal they see they recognize to be their mother.  Imprinting occurs early in the life of many animals when they begin to associate "faces" with their species.

Conditioning

Classical Conditioning: The Pavlov Experiment.

The Pavlov experiment was a matter of association of one signal/stimulus/action with another signal/stimulus/action.  For example, a Russian scientist named Ivan Pavlov did an experiment with dogs: he would feed the dogs and everytime before feeding them he would ring a bell.  Through repeated exposure to this association - bell equals food - the dogs learned to react to the bell as if they were going to be fed.

Operant Conditioning: Trial and Error.

Lets reuse the dogs mentioned above.  In this form of conditioning the animal associates not just an action with a corresponding action but with the characteristics of the action produced.  Pavlov rang a bell and the dogs associated that with food.  Food is beneficial so the dogs also associate a positive result with coming to Pavlov when the bell is rung; if Pavlov would have rang the bell and when the dogs would have come, kicked them (I know this is inhumane treatment of animals but it is only an example) the dogs would associate a negative result occurring from the ringing of the bell and not come.

Insight: Reasoning.

So how is insight different from reasoning something through trial-and-error or classical conditioning?  Insight is reasoning without needing to try what is reasoned until a successful conclusion is reached.  Think of insight as problem solving - brainstorming.  If necessary associate educational testing with insight!

Ecology

Recall from the Introduction that life is divided into tiers from the organic molecule to the individual organism individual to the entire inhabitable portion of the Earth.  Let's define the tiers between the individual and the Earth:

Biosphere:  comprised of all regions where life is found to exist.  This has recently been extended to Antarctica where sub-zero microorganisms have now been found to thrive.

Biome:  a region characterized by the interactions of specific animals, plants, soil and climate.

Major Biomes:  Tundra, Taiga, Grassland, Rainforest, Temperate Deciduous, Desert. 

Ecosystem:  the interaction between the living (community) and the non-living in a finite area.

Energy flow from producers to primary consumers to secondary consumers to tertiary consumers and the nitrogen cycle of decomposers, bacteria (Monera), plants, atmosphere.

Community:  populations interacting in a finite area.

Communities are full of symbiotic relationships.  Mutualism is when both organisms involved benefit from collaboration.  Commensalism is when one benefits and the other organism is neither benefited nor harmed.  Parasitism is when one benefits and the health of the other decreases.

Population:  a group of the same species living in an finite area.

You've finished the notes.  Let's see how much you remember!