ABSTRACT
When any animal is born, it is already endowed with a variety of complex abilities. Its immediate survival depends on the ability to breathe and to pump blood through its veins. If it is a mammal, it has the ability to regulate its temperature within narrow limits. If its survival depends on the ability to flee from predators, it may start to walk and run within minutes after birth. Newborn animals are also equipped with a range of sensory capacities. One major purpose of this chapter is to provide examples of the types of behavioral abilities that an animal may already possess as it enters the world. There are good reasons for examining innate behavior patterns in a book about learning. First, many learned behaviors are derivatives, extensions, or variations of innate behaviors. Second, many of the features of
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
• describe the major concepts of control systems theory, and apply the concepts to both living and nonliving examples of goal-directed behavior
• describe four different types of innate behavior patterns, and explain how they differ
• describe some human abilities and predispositions that may be inborn • define habituation, and list the general principles of habituation that are found
in all animal species • discuss what is known about the neural mechanisms of habituation • describe opponent-process theory, and diagram the typical pattern of an
emotional response to a new stimulus and to a stimulus that has been repeated many times
learned behaviors (e.g., their control by environmental stimuli, their mechanisms of temporal sequencing) have parallels in inborn behavior patterns. Besides surveying different types of innate behaviors, this chapter will also examine the phenomenon of habituation, which is often said to be the simplest type of learning.
