This type of behavior comes naturally to all animals. Each animal know what to do they first day of their lives, without being taught. These actions are usually reflexes. Examples:
Baby turtles head straight for the water after hatching from their egg
Human babies grabbing onto fingers with their small hands after being born
Turtles
Fixed Action Patterns
A fixed action pattern is a behavior learn over a series of time. Each time the animal performs the behavior, it is exactly the same, with the same results. Example:
When an egg gets moved from the nest, a mother goose will push it back. However, if you were to place any other object that is round in shape (golf ball for example),it would push it back into the nest the exact same way as an egg.
Imprinting
Imprinting is when the young animal starts to learn and recognize their parental figures. They start to assume that everyone is their parental figure. Examples:
When children are very young and start to learn who their mother is, they assume that any other older woman is also called "mom".
Young geese follow their mother, but will also follow any other being if they seem to be a parent
Geese following man
Operant Conditioning
Also call "associative learning",this form of behavior starts to lean towards learned behavior. Trial and error is usually associated with this behavior. The patterns are taught through the animal being rewarded or punished. B.F. Skinner is the psychologist who is considered to have invented operant conditioning. Example:
You learn that the stove is hot by touching it. When you do it hurts, and you know not to do it again. You were punished for that action.
Habituation
Habituation occurs when a form of stimulition occurs so much, the animal learns to ignore it. As time goes on, the responses the animal gives off slowly decrease as the action is repeated. Examples:
A piece of plastic is placed on an octopus. The first 2 times, the octopus will eat the plastic, then learn it isn't food. The next time this experiment is tried the octopus will ignore the plastic. When food is placed on the octopus, it will eat it, knowing that it is food.
A musician will get used to the sound of a metronome in the background, because they've heard it very often. The first time you hear a metronome, its very distracting, and hard to tune out.
Octopus
Observational Learning
This form of behavior is all about watching and then repeating the action. Mirror neurons in the brain help perform this action. Example: When a child learns karate, they mimic the moves their instructor performs. Eventually they memories the moves without having to watch.
Karate
Insight
Insight is the final form of learned behavior. In this behavior, an animal learns and understands how to perform the action without having to repeat it or watch another do it Very few animals reach this level of learning. Examples:
The "Box and Banana Problem" is an experiment involving insight in chimpanzees. In this experiment, a banana is hanging from the ceiling in a room that only has boxes. The chimpanzee will eventually figure out that they need to stack the boxes and climb them to reach the banana.
This is a picture of a pigeon performing the box and banana problem experiment.