Instincts, Learning, and Intelligence in Animals

Posted on Feb 25, 2025 in Psychology and Sociology

Characteristics of Instincts

Instincts are fundamental aspects of animal behavior. Key characteristics include:

  1. Inborn: Instincts are not learned; they arise spontaneously in response to a specific stimulus or situation. An *incentive* is a material element of the environment that is absorbed by an organism and triggers the behavior.
  2. Specific: Instincts are unique or identical for all members of the same species.
  3. Stereotyped: Instincts manifest as fixed and identical patterns of behavior.
  4. Unintentional: Instincts are automatic and involuntary.
  5. Survivalist: Instincts perform functions crucial for survival or serve to satisfy basic needs.
  6. Adaptable: Instincts are minimally adapted to environmental circumstances.
  7. Resilient: Instinctive behaviors are persistent across time and space.

Conduct: A reaction to a stimulus.

Note: The word “instinct” has two meanings:

  • a. A trend, impulse, or drive (e.g., self-preservative instincts, sexual instincts).
  • b. A form of behavior characterized by fixed patterns.

It is debated whether humans possess instincts in the same way animals do, as human behavior is not solely instinctive.

Learning and Learned Behavior

Learned behavior involves acquiring, modifying, or eliminating a behavior as a result of experience or practice. The capacity for learning increases with the development of the nervous system.

Types of Learning

  • Direct Imitation: Learning by observing others.
  • Observational Learning: Learning by observing one’s own conduct or through practice.
  • Trial and Error: Learning through experimentation.
  • Conscious/Symbolic Learning: Higher-level learning involving abstract thought.
  • Conditioning: Inducing a behavior, not spontaneously, but through the manipulation of a stimulus or incentive.

Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)

Classical conditioning involves inducing a behavior by associating a neutral stimulus with a natural stimulus that typically elicits the behavior. For example, a dog salivates in the presence of food (natural stimulus -> natural reflex). Through repeated association, the sound of a bell (conditioned stimulus) can also cause salivation (conditioned reflex, mirroring the natural reflex).

Operant Conditioning (Skinner)

Operant conditioning involves reinforcing a randomly performed behavior through positive reinforcement. Behaviors followed by rewards or positive reinforcement tend to be maintained or repeated. This method is generally more effective than eliminating behavior through punishment or negative reinforcement.

Intelligent Behavior

Intelligent behavior is the ability to provide new or original answers to new problems (or even to known problems). It arises from assessing a situation, understanding its elements, and recognizing their relationships.

  • Intelligent Behavior -> Comprehensive Conduct
  • Learned Behavior -> Involves Repetition

Intelligent behavior is also referred to as thought (knowledge of reality). There are two types or levels of intelligence:

  • Practical Intelligence: The capacity to solve practical problems. It is present in higher animals but is limited to situations where all elements of the problem are immediately present.
  • Logical-Abstract/Symbolic Intelligence (Thought): The ability to think or mentally understand and analyze through concepts. This is considered the exclusive domain of humans. It involves using concepts, demonstrating the capacity for abstraction, and relating judgments and reasoning. Abstraction is crucial for perceiving objects accurately. Concepts form the basis of human knowledge. A concept is a mental image representing a real-world object.

Three processes for learning to relate to objects:

  1. Perception
  2. Manipulation (acting upon them)
  3. Naming (identifying them with a unique label)

Forms of Knowledge in Animals

  1. Respondent Sensitivity (Instinct): The ability to detect certain signals or stimuli that trigger specific, automated behavioral responses. This involves capturing stimuli through sensory organs, leading to immediate, automatic reactions.
  2. Inclusive Sensitivity: The animal does not behave automatically or rely on preconceived models. It responds to an overview, demonstrating a distinction between its own body, the needs of the environment, and the objects that fulfill those needs. This represents a form of sensory awareness of both self and reality.
  3. Memory: Learning through conditioning, imitation, trial and error, and experience.