|
Arabic
Bengali
Chinese
English
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese|
Lecture notes, cheat sheets
Zoopsychology. Teaching (lecture notes)
Directory / Lecture notes, cheat sheets Table of contents (expand) Topic 4. Learning 4.1. learning process The mental activity of any animal, the variety of forms of its behavior are inextricably linked with such a process as learning. All components of behavior are formed under the influence of two aspects, each of which is undeniably important. First, species experience is of great importance, which is fixed in the process of evolution of the species, and is transmitted to a particular individual in a genetically fixed form. Such components of behavior will be instinctive and innate. However, there is a second aspect - the accumulation of individual experience of an individual in the course of its life. At the same time, the acquisition of experience by an individual occurs in a rather rigid species-typical framework. G. Tembrok identifies two forms of accumulation of individual experience by an individual: obligate and optional. In the process of obligate learning, an individual acquires individual experience, which does not depend on the conditions of its life, but is necessary for the survival of any representative of this species. Optional learning includes individual adaptations that a particular individual acquires depending on the conditions of its existence. This component of the animal's behavior is the most flexible; it helps to rebuild species-typical behavior in the specific conditions of a given environment. At the same time, unlike obligate learning, facultative learning will differ in different individuals of the same species. Instinctive behavior may be subject to changes in the effector sphere (motor responses), the sensory sphere (signal perception), or in both spheres of behavior at the same time (the latter option is most common). If learning captures the working organ, most often there is a recombination of innate motor elements of behavior, but new motor elements may also arise. As a rule, such motor elements are formed at the early stages of ontogenesis, for example, the imitative singing of young birds. In mammals, such acquired reactions play one of the main roles in the process of cognitive and research activity, in the development of intelligence. If learning takes place in the sensory sphere, the animal acquires new signals. Acquisition by an individual of such new significant signals makes it possible to expand its ability to orientate itself in the environment. Initially, these signals are practically indifferent to the animal, in contrast to biologically significant key stimuli, but over time, in the process of accumulation of individual experience by an individual, initially almost indifferent signals acquire a signal value. In the process of learning, an individual selectively selects individual components from the environment, which, from biologically neutral, become biologically significant. The basis for this are various processes in the higher parts of the central nervous system, which are determined by the action of both internal and external factors. Afferent synthesis occurs (the synthesis of perceived stimuli), then the stimuli are compared with information that was previously perceived and stored in memory. As a result, the individual becomes ready to perform certain response actions to stimuli. After they are completed, information about the results of the actions performed is received in the central nervous system according to the feedback principle. This information is analyzed, on the basis of which a new afferent synthesis occurs. Thus, the central nervous system not only contains innate, instinctive programs of behavior, but also new, individual programs are constantly being formed, on which the learning process is based. It follows from the foregoing that the learning process is very complex, it is based on the formation of programs for future actions. Such formation is the result of a complex of processes: a comparison of external and internal stimuli, species and individual experience, registration of the parameters of a completed action and verification of the results of these actions. The importance of the learning process. Learning processes are most important for an animal in the early stages of search behavior. Hereditary behavioral programs cannot take into account the entire variety of situations in which an individual will find itself, so it can only rely on its own experience. In this case, the timely orientation of the animal in conditions of changing environmental factors is extremely important. It must quickly and correctly choose an effective method of action already at the initial stage of the behavioral act. The speed and ease of achieving the final phase of the act will depend on this. Thus, acquired elements must inevitably be built into the instinctive behavior of an individual. Such embedding is hereditarily fixed, so we can talk about the species-typical limits of learning. The learning process has certain, genetically fixed, limits, beyond which an individual cannot learn anything. In higher vertebrates, these limits can be much wider than necessary in the specific conditions of their life. Thanks to this, higher animals have the ability to change their behavioral responses in extreme conditions, their behavior becomes more flexible. In contrast, in lower animals, the ability to learn is extremely small, mainly their behavior is determined by hereditarily fixed reactions. Thus, the breadth of the range of learning can be an indicator of the mental development of the animal. The wider the framework within which an individual can carry out behavioral reactions, the more it is capable of accumulating individual experience, the better its instinctive behavior is corrected, and the more labile the search phase of its behavior will be. Innate behavior and learning abilities are evolutionarily linked. In the process of evolution, instinctive behavior is constantly becoming more complex, which requires a broad framework of learning ability. Expanding these limits makes it possible to make innate behavior more flexible, which means it raises instinctive behavior to a higher level of development. The process of evolution encompasses not only the very content of instinctive behavior, but also the possibility of enriching it with individual experience. At the lower stages of evolution, the possibility of learning is limited and manifests itself only in such phenomena as habituation and training. In the process of habituation, the response to repeatedly repeated irritation that has no biological significance gradually disappears. This process is opposite to the process of training, during which the improvement of instinctive action occurs, due to the accumulation of individual experience. Primitive, simplest forms of behavior do not disappear in the process of evolution, they are replaced by more complex forms. Often other forms of behavior are superimposed on elementary forms, as a result of which the former acquire complexity and lability. Thus, the process of habituation, which already manifests itself in protozoa, can be observed in a complicated form in higher vertebrates. For example, R. Hind's experiments on mice showed that the reactions of these animals to multiple unreinforced acoustic signals weaken at different speeds. However, differences in habituation are determined not only by different intensities of stimuli (as in lower animals), but also by individual variability in the very process of habituation in higher animals. Skills. In the process of evolutionary development, a qualitatively new component of learning appears in the behavior of animals - skill. Skill is a central form of optional learning. According to Russian psychologist A.N. Leontyev (1903-1979, “Problems of psychic development”, 1959; “Development of memory”, 1931), if we consider skills as any connections that arise in the process of acquiring individual experience, this concept becomes too vague and cannot be used for strict scientific analysis. Thus, the concepts of “skill” and “learning” must be strictly distinguished. The ability to develop skills is manifested at a certain level of evolutionary development of the animal. The success of the performed motor actions, as well as the reinforcement of these movements with a positive result, will be decisive for the formation of a skill. Learning can take place on the basis of information that an individual independently received during an active search for a stimulus or in the process of communicating with other individuals. The latter option includes the process of imitation and various learning processes. It is important to note that the skill is formed as a result of the exercise. In order for it to be preserved, constant training is necessary, this will improve the skill. In the absence of systematic training, skills are gradually destroyed. There are many special methods for learning skills: the labyrinth method, the problem box (problem cell) method, the detour method (for more details on these methods, see 1.2.) Their distinctive feature is that the animal must choose a certain signal or method to solve a certain problem. actions. When using the labyrinth method, the basis for the formation of a skill for the animal will be the memorization of the object and the path to it. With repeated repetition of the experiment under the same conditions, the animal will run the distance to the food object in a constant, short way. In this situation, the skill of finding food in the maze becomes stereotypical and reaches automatism. In general, stereotyping is generally characteristic of the most primitive skills. Greater plasticity is characteristic of such skills only at the initial stages of education. On the contrary, skills of higher orders are characterized by rather significant plasticity at all stages of formation. Skill Development Methods. There are two methods of experimental development of skills: the method of the American behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner ("Behavior of Organisms", 1938) (operant, or instrumental, conditioning) and the classical method of I.P. Pavlova. When developing conditioned reflexes according to the Pavlov method, the animal is initially asked to perform certain movements that it must perform in order to receive reinforcement. In Skinner's method, the animal must find these movements on its own, perhaps through trial and error. An example is an experiment with a rat that is placed in a cage. She will receive nutritional reinforcement only if she accidentally presses a bar attached to the cell wall. In this case, a temporary connection is formed in the nervous system of the rat between the accidental pressing of the bar and the appearance of the feeder. It is possible to significantly complicate the experiment: to give the animal the opportunity to choose one of two actions that will lead to different, opposite, results. For example, pressing the pedal in the cage alternately turns on the heater and turns off the fan, or vice versa. The rat can thus regulate the temperature in the cage. With the Pavlovian method, the response strictly follows the stimulus, and the unconditioned reinforcement is associated with the conditioned stimulus through the formation of a conditioned reflex connection. With instrumental conditioning, a response (movement) is initially produced, which is reinforced without a conditioned signal. The need for reinforcement induces the animal to a certain reaction to the pedal; it corrects its behavior in accordance with the perception of the pedal. It is this perception that plays the role of a conditioned stimulus, since the action of the pedal leads to food reinforcement (a biologically significant result). If such a temporary connection is not established, the pedal has no signal value for the animal. When developing reflexes according to the Pavlov method, the initial phase of the behavioral act is taken into account - the orientation phase of the animal. The animal learns under what external conditions, when it must produce a certain movement, i.e., orientation in time is carried out. In addition, the animal must also orient itself in space: find the pedal, learn how to use it. All these points are not taken into account in instrumental conditioning. Method I.P. Pavlova makes it possible to qualitatively analyze the orientation of the animal by the components of the environment. However, when studying learning processes, one should not be limited only to this technique, because the development of skills is not identical to the development of classical conditioned reflexes. Training - one of the forms of developing skills in an animal. In contrast to the instrumental development of skills, when the animal has the maximum opportunity to show independence, during training, strict control over the formation of skills is exercised. The animal is no longer faced with the task of independently searching for a method of action to achieve a result - on the contrary, in the course of constant training, undesirable actions are eliminated, and the required movements are reinforced. The result of training are complex and durable motor reactions that are performed by the animal in response to a human command. Reinforcement during training can be either negative (pain for an incorrect action) or positive (food reinforcement). A mixed method can also be used, in which wrong actions are punished, and correct ones are encouraged. The use of training in the study of animal skills is determined by the clarity of the conditions in which it is placed, as well as the possibility of taking into account the signals given by the trainer as accurately as possible. Training is a complex process; it is not a chain of conditioned reflexes. The greatest difficulty the researcher faces is getting the animal to understand what the trainer expects of it. The expected actions should be species-typical for the animal, but under the given conditions may be unusual for it. The theory of training was developed by the Soviet zoopsychologist M.A. Gerd. The training process was proposed to be divided into three stages: pushing, working off and strengthening. At the pushing stage, the trainer must force the animal to perform the required system of actions. An example is the well-known circus number, in which an animal (for example, a dog) rolls out a carpet. When training a dog, a person shows her a piece of delicacy, standing near a carpet rolled into a tube, but does not allow her to grab food. The animal becomes excited, starts jumping briskly on the spot, barking, touching with its front paws. At the same time, any accidental touches of the dog on the carpet are reinforced with small pieces of treats. Gradually, the dog will deliberately begin to touch the carpet with its paws in order to receive reinforcement, it will form the necessary paw movements on the carpet for the number. Subsequently, all these movements are carefully worked out, their orientation is specified. At this stage of training, you can act in three ways. The first method is the method of direct pushing, when the trainer makes the animal move after an object that is attractive to him (for example, food). The second method is indirect pushing: the trainer provokes movements not directed at the bait, but caused by the excitation of the animal. This method forms the manipulation actions of the limbs: the transfer of objects, grasping, pushing, and others. In the complex prodding method, the animal first develops a skill, and then in another situation it is forced to use this skill in a different way. For example, a fur seal is first taught to drop a ball into the handler's hands. The trainer then hides his hands behind his back for a few moments. The cat is forced to hold the ball on the bow because it only receives reinforcement when the ball hits the handler's hands. Gradually, the duration of holding the ball by the fur seal increases, and as a result, a circus act with balancing the ball is created. At the second stage of training - the stage of working out - the trainer focuses his efforts on getting rid of the extra movements of the animal that accompany the necessary actions. This is especially true of all kinds of orienting reactions caused by a situation that is new for the animal. When unnecessary movements are eliminated, the primary system of actions is "polished", the necessary movements are made sufficiently clear and long, and a convenient signaling is selected to control the actions of the animal. In this case, the reaction to food reinforcement should be replaced by a reaction to the trainer's signal (for example, the sound of a whistle). At the development stage, pushing techniques are also used. For example, the correct posture of an animal standing on its hind legs can be fixed by raising the bait above its head. With the help of these techniques, the development of artificial signaling is carried out. The last stage of training is the stage of hardening. At this stage, efforts are focused on consolidating the acquired skills, as well as ensuring their mandatory reproduction in response to a signal. Pushing is no longer used here. Food reinforcement is produced not after each skill, but at the end of the whole complex of actions. As a result, skills take the form of a stereotyped reaction when the end of one action is the beginning of the second, and so on. Thus, the artificial development of skills in animals is a very complex process, although it is undoubtedly inferior in terms of the degree of diversity to the formation of skills in animals in natural conditions. 4.2. The role of cognitive processes in the formation of skills Well-known zoopsychologists G. Spencer, C. Lloyd-Morgan, G. Jennings and E. Thorndike, as a result of research conducted in the middle of the XNUMXth century, came to the conclusion that the process of skills formation is carried out by "trial and error". This meant the formation of skills both in relation to orientation among the components of the environment, and in relation to the formation of new combinations of movements. Random actions that led to a successful result are selected from the animal and fixed. Actions that do not lead to success are gradually eliminated and not fixed, and "successful" actions, repeated many times, form skills. Thus, the concept of "trial and error" states that all actions are performed spontaneously and randomly, while the animal turns out to be as if passive in relation to the components of the environment. However, the formation of skills as a process requires the activity of the animal, a selective attitude to the components of the environment. In the 1920s the concept of "trial and error" had opponents - the American neo-behaviorist psychologist E. Tolman (1886-1959; Purposeful Behavior in Animals and Man, 1932), the Russian physiologist V.P. Protopopov (1880-1957) and other scientists. They did not agree with the ideas about the randomness and non-direction of animal movements in solving problems. According to them, skills are formed in the process of active orienting motor activity of the animal. The animal analyzes the situation and actively chooses those actions that correspond to the achievement of the goal. In other words, the resulting movements are adequate to the goal. The decisive factor here will not be a random choice, but an active motor analysis. These views also have experimental confirmation. The experiments of scientists I.F. Dashiella, K. Spence and W. Shipley, conducted in the middle of the XNUMXth century, showed that when a rat enters a maze, it more often enters dead ends located towards the target (food bait) than those located in the opposite direction. First, the rat carries out the first motor orientation in the maze, and on its basis creates a scheme of movement, i.e., its actions are not random. Thus, during the development of skills as a result of primary active orientation, directed actions arise in animals. These data allowed the Polish zoopsychologist I. Krechevsky to put forward the assumption that the animal is guided in solving various problems by a kind of "hypotheses". They are especially pronounced if the animal is faced with a task that is obviously not solvable for him. For example, an animal is placed in a labyrinth, the doors in which close and open without any system and sequence, chaotically. In this case, according to Krechevsky's ideas, each animal builds its own "hypothesis" and repeatedly tests it. If, after repeating the actions, the "hypothesis" does not lead to a solution, the animal abandons it and builds another one, which it also tests, and so on. In such a situation, each animal behaves in the same way, regardless of changing external conditions. In experiments on rats in a maze with randomly closing passages, each animal acted in accordance with its "strategy". Some rats alternated turns to the right and left with a clear regularity. Others first turned right at each fork, and when this did not lead to success, they began to constantly turn left. Thus, in constantly changing conditions, animals seemed to be trying to identify a certain principle and act according to it. Krechevsky came to the conclusion that this abstract "principle" is due to the internal "tuning" of the animal. Krechevsky drew attention to the complexity of the behavioral reactions of the animal at the initial stage of solving the problem - during this period, the role of exploratory behavior is especially pronounced. In his concept, emphasis is placed on the active behavior of the animal, the manifestation of initiative by it. In addition, Krechevsky's concept emphasizes the role of internal factors, and above all the mental state of the animal, in the choice of actions to solve the problem facing him. The concept of "trial and error" is refuted by some experiences and experiments. For example, experiments with the use of "latent learning" are known. Their essence lies in the fact that the animal is given the opportunity to get acquainted with the device of the experimental setup before the start of the experiment. In this case, it is especially important that familiarization takes place actively, i.e., the animal has the opportunity to run a little in the installation. It should be noted that the orienting behavior of a rat that first entered the setup, in the absence of reinforcement, serves only to accumulate experience. When the rat is placed in the setup before the start of the experiment, it still does not see any goal in front of it, since there is no food reinforcement (positive stimulus) or pain (negative stimulus). With such a primary examination of the labyrinth, the nature of the perception of objects can differ significantly in different animals: some rats will use mainly visual stimuli, others - olfactory ones. Individual characteristics as a whole are a sign of the learning process, since the instinctive components of behavior are conservative and unchanged. If we compare the rate of skill formation in an animal that is placed in the maze immediately before the experiment, and in an animal that has actively familiarized itself with the maze, it will be much less in the second animal. All these experiments convincingly prove that for the successful emergence of a habit, active cognitive activity of the animal is necessary as a prerequisite. It is this cognitive process that determines the nature of the skill. A.N. Leontiev proposed a criterion for separating habit from other forms of learning. He called this most important criterion "operation". An operation is a component of an animal's activity that meets the conditions in which the object that stimulates this activity is given. Leontiev suggested that only fixed operations be considered skills. Highlighting an operation in the animal's motor activity indicates that this is a real skill. An example of the selection of an operation can serve as an experiment using the workaround method, which was carried out by A.V. Zaporozhets and I.G. Dimanstein. In an aquarium with water, a transverse partition made of gauze was installed, and a narrow passage was left on the side through which the experimental fish could swim. A fish was placed in one part of the aquarium, and a food bait for it (for example, a bloodworm) was placed in the other part, separated by a partition. The fish could capture the bait only by going around the partition, this happened after it could not swim directly to the food. During the search for the path that led her to the bait, the experimental animal performed certain motor actions. In this locomotor activity, Leontyev suggests seeing two components. The first is directed activity, which arises under the influence of the properties of the object itself that stimulates the activity, i.e. the smell of bloodworms, its type. The second component of the locomotor reaction is activity associated with the influence of an obstacle, i.e., with the conditions in which the object stimulating the activity is given. This activity will be, according to Leontiev’s terminology, an operation. After the experimental fish learns a detour to the bait, i.e., a motor skill is developed, the barrier is removed from the aquarium. However, the fish will exactly repeat its path around the obstacle. Over time, the path will straighten out. Thus, the effect of the obstacle in this experiment is strongly connected with the effect of the bait, both of these components act together and inseparably, the bait does not separate from the partition, and vice versa. Consequently, in this situation, the operation can be distinguished only conditionally, it is not yet separable from other components of the motor reaction. This fish example is an example of an automated skill - a skill that is still at a very low level of development. In this case, the cognitive aspect of skill formation is extremely weak, so the trajectory of the path to the bait becomes so strongly fixed that it persists even after the obstacle is removed. In order for a complex skill to be formed, its cognitive component must be very large. The characteristic feature of higher-level skills in higher vertebrates is that operation is clearly distinguished and plays an extremely important cognitive role. However, this does not mean at all that they lack primitive skills and are not important for the accumulation of individual experience. The level of the developing skill depends on the biology of the species and on the situation in which the animal faces the task. The cognitive aspect of a skill is manifested in ways of overcoming an obstacle. When analyzing the formation of skills, an obstacle is understood not only as a direct physical obstacle that blocks the path to the stimulating object. An obstacle to solving the problem facing an animal is any obstacle on the way to the goal, regardless of its nature. This was experimentally proven by V.P. Protopopov. His research showed that absolutely any motor skills in animals are formed through overcoming a certain “obstacle”, and it is its character and nature that determine the content of the formed skill. According to Protopopov, the stimulus has only a dynamic effect on the formation of a skill, i.e., it determines the speed and strength of its consolidation. Overcoming an obstacle is an important element in the formation of a skill, not only when developing it using the workaround method, but also when using other methods for this purpose, for example, the labyrinth method and the problem box method. The Hungarian zoopsychologist L. Kardos paid much attention to the cognitive aspects of skill formation. He especially emphasized that when an animal learns in a maze, it enriches its knowledge and accumulates a significant supply of useful information. Kardosh wrote about it this way: “...at the beginning of the labyrinth, the animal in memory... sees beyond the walls that cover its field of sensations; these walls become, as it were, transparent. In memory, it “sees” the goal and the most important ones from the point of view of locomotion ( movements. - Author) parts of the path, open and closed doors, branches, etc., “sees” exactly the same way and where and how it saw it in reality while walking around the labyrinth.”[12] Along with this, Kardosh clearly defined the boundaries of the animal's cognitive capabilities in solving problems. Here, in his opinion, there are two possibilities: locomotor and manipulative cognition. In locomotor cognition, the animal changes its spatial position in the environment without changing the environment itself. With manipulative cognition, an active change in the environment of animals occurs. Manipulative cognition is carried out during the formation of instrumental skills. Kardosh conducted studies in which he showed that an animal (in the experiment, a rat) can be taught to choose different paths in a maze that lead to one point, and then move on in different ways, for example, in one direction or the other. This may serve as an example of locomotor cognition. However, according to Kardosh, no animal (except apes) can be taught that, depending on the choice of one of two paths of movement, quite definite changes will occur in the environment. In the experiment, for example, food was replaced with another reinforcer - water. L. Kardosh writes: "... a person would be surprised to find different objects in the same place when he approached from the right and from the left, but he would learn after the first experience. It is here that development makes a leap... A person is completely can free itself from the directing influence of spatial order if temporal-causal connections require something else.” [13] 4.3. Learning and communication. Animal imitation The role of imitation in the formation of behavior in higher animals cannot be overestimated. The phenomenon of imitation does not always belong to the process of learning, it can also belong to instinctive behavior. An example of such imitation is allelomimetic behavior (mutual stimulation), when the performance of actions (species-typical) by some animals induces others to perform the same actions (for example, the simultaneous collection of food). At the same time, a certain kind of action, inherent in all individuals of the species, is encouraged. Learning by imitation is called "imitation learning". The essence of this process is that the animal individually forms new forms of behavior through direct perception of the actions of other animals. In other words, the basis of such learning is communication with other individuals. Simulation learning can be divided into obligate and optional. In the process of obligate imitation learning, its result fits entirely within the framework of a certain species stereotype. Through imitation, individuals learn to perform vital actions. All these actions are inherent in the normal behavioral “repertoire” of the species. Obligate learning is most typical for young animals. An example is the formation of a defensive reaction to a predator in the form of flight in young fish of schooling fish species. At the same time, they imitate the behavior of adult fish, for example, when they see other members of the school being eaten by a predator. According to L.A. Orbeli, such imitative behavior is extremely important, “it serves as the main guardian of the species, for the enormous advantage lies in the fact that spectators present at the act of damage to a member of their own herd or their community develop reflexive protective acts and thus can avoid danger in the future.” . [14] Obligate imitation learning also serves as an important element in the reaction of following and recognition of food objects by young mammals. Young individuals of animals such as birds and great apes (chimpanzees) acquire nest-building experience through obligate imitation learning. The simplest optional imitation learning is manifested in the imitation of movements that are not inherent in this species. In this case, imitation occurs on the basis of allelomimetic stimulation. For example, when keeping great apes in conditions where animals can constantly contact people, monkeys begin to perform various actions with household items, imitating human actions. This behavior will no longer be species-typical: new methods of manipulative activity are being formed. Such actions are called "non-species imitation manipulation." With optional simulation learning, problem solving occurs in a more complex form. One animal performs certain actions to solve the problem, the other (the spectator animal) only observes its actions, and the skill is developed in it in the course of observation. The ability for such learning has been noted in various mammals: rats, dogs, cats, lower and great apes, but it plays a particularly important role in the latter. Based on observations in nature, A.D. Slonim concluded that the formation of conditioned reflexes in a herd of monkeys occurs mainly on the basis of imitation. But not all skills can be formed in animals through optional imitation learning. Instrumental skills are not formed in this way. This is confirmed by the experiments of the American researcher B. B. Beck. In his experiments, baboons were used, which observed the use of tools by relatives in solving problems. The baboons-viewers did not acquire instrumental skills, but they more often and more intensively than before these experiments performed manipulations of the tools, the use of which was observed. This example proves that allelomimetic behavior and non-species imitative manipulation play an important role in the development of complex skills in social conditions. Imitation also captures the field of signaling and communication. An example is the onomatopoeia of birds. In this case, the stimulation of species-typical acoustic signaling occurs (for example, phenomena such as "choirs" of birds). The imitation of birds to other people's sounds and songs can be defined as non-species imitative manipulation. The assimilation of species-typical sounds by chicks by imitating the singing of adults refers to obligate imitation learning. Two fundamentally different approaches can be applied to the study of the process of imitation in animals. 1. When studying amelomic behavior, animals are isolated from each other and trained separately, only then they are brought together. Animals can be trained to respond to the same signal in different ways, while achieving the opposite response. After bringing the animals together and presenting this signal to them, one can find out what prevails in a given group of animals: mutual stimulation or the results of the usual learning of each animal. The results will make it possible to judge the strength of the allelomimetic reaction in these animals, i.e., the strength of imitation. 2. If imitation learning is being studied, the animals are provided with communication from the beginning of the experiments. In this case, one individual (animal-actor) is trained by the researcher for a certain reinforcement in front of the other individuals (animal-spectators). We can talk about optional imitative learning if individuals who were not trained by the experimenter and did not receive rewards for solving the problem learn to solve this problem correctly and without their own exercises, based only on observation. For example, when one banana is thrown to the monkeys, the leader of the pack always gets it. However, soon all individuals of the flock begin to gather at a certain signal, although only the leader still receives the banana. In this way, the skills of all animals ("spectators") are formed, which helps to solve the problem even in the absence of a leader ("actor"). The phenomena of imitation in the natural environment are quite closely and intricately intertwined with the intragroup relations of animals. So, in communities, in addition to mutual stimulation for the joint performance of certain actions, there is also an opposite factor - the suppression by "dominant" individuals of the actions of other members of the community. For example, in the experiment described above, the monkeys were afraid even to approach the installation in which they put a banana, and even more so did not dare to take it. However, the monkeys also have special, as it were, "pacifying" signals. The purpose of these signals is to notify the dominant individual (leader) of the readiness of the rest of the pack members only to observe. This possibility provides the implementation of allelomimetic behavior and imitative learning. Learning at different stages of a behavioral act. Any behavioral response of an animal begins with an internal stimulus (need). This stimulus activates the animal, prompts it to start an active search activity. The initial phase, the search behavior itself, and the final phase are always clearly genetically fixed, but the path along which the animal reaches the final phase of behavior may change. It depends on the learning process, on how variable the animal's behavior is, to what extent it is capable of correct orientation in a changing environment. In higher animals, the main means of achieving the final phase of a behavioral act is facultative learning. Its success depends on the perfection of the mechanism of orientation of the animal in space and time. The more perfect this orientation, the more successful will be the overcoming of the obstacle, i.e., the conditions in which the object is given. The perfection of the animal's orienting reactions directly depends on the level of its mental activity. The most important here are the higher mental functions - intellectual capabilities. They give the animal's behavior flexibility and variability, thereby providing adaptive opportunities for behavioral responses. Authors: Stupina S.B., Filipechev A.O. << Back: Behavior. Basic forms of animal behavior >> Forward: The development of the mental activity of animals in ontogenesis (Development of mental activity in the prenatal period. Development of the mental activity of animals in the early postnatal period. Development of mental activity in the juvenile (play) period. Animal games)
▪ Theory of accounting. Lecture notes ▪ Children's surgery. Lecture notes
The existence of an entropy rule for quantum entanglement has been proven
09.05.2024 Mini air conditioner Sony Reon Pocket 5
09.05.2024 Energy from space for Starship
08.05.2024
▪ Area Ragno GRABBER 2 video capture card ▪ Global warming will provoke a record number of migrants
▪ section of the site Videotechnique. Article selection ▪ article by Vittorio Alfieri. Famous aphorisms ▪ article Who built the first lighthouse? Detailed answer ▪ article Head of the economic department. Job description
Home page | Library | Articles | Website map | Site Reviews
www.diagram.com.ua |
We recommend interesting articles Section 
See other articles Section 
Latest news of science and technology, new electronics:
All languages of this page