Reaction Paper On Animal Learning And Morality
1914 Words8 Pages
Week 04: Reaction Paper – Animal Learning and Morality
Summary
Learning is one of the basis of survival and is strongly featured in evolution and natural selection, it affects the way animals behave and the actions they undertake. Starting with Individual Learning which seems to have a strong base in Conditioning whereby one learns to associate a certain stimulus with a specific result. Blocking, Overshadowing and Latent Inhibition are just some of the factors that can affect the conditioning of an animal (Dugatkin, 2014, pp. 134-138).
Cultural Transmission takes place when animals learn from each other; rats sniffing one another to find out what foods are safe to eat, this enables multiple rats to increase their chances of survival by being able to avoid sampling a toxic food source. Local Enhancement, Imitation and Social Facilitation facilitate Cultural Transmission by gathering animals together, allowing them to learn from each other and affecting their behaviour by the presence of others. An example would be a gathering of birds whereby they observe and imitate a more effective method of foraging and are able to forage not only more effectively but for longer as well due to the presence of others that bring a sense of safety. Another example of Cultural Transmission would be the potato washing and toy playing behaviour of Japanese Macaques which spread quickly in a certain group whereby these activities were started by one individual but imitated by many others