Editing Ethology (section)

=== Learning ===

==== Habituation ====

{{Main |Habituation}}

Habituation is a simple form of learning and occurs in many animal taxa. It is the process whereby an animal ceases responding to a stimulus. Often, the response is an innate behavior. Essentially, the animal learns not to respond to irrelevant stimuli. For example, [[prairie dog]]s (''Cynomys ludovicianus'') give alarm calls when predators approach, causing all individuals in the group to quickly scramble down burrows. When prairie dog towns are located near trails used by humans, giving alarm calls every time a person walks by is expensive in terms of time and energy. Habituation to humans is therefore an important behavior in this context.<ref name="Breed">{{cite web |title= Habituation |last= Breed |first= Michael D.|year=2001 |website = www.animalbehavioronline.com|url= http://www.animalbehavioronline.com/habituation.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= The MIT encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacogn00wils |url-access=limited |year=2001 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn= 978-0-262-73144-7 |author=Keil, Frank C. |author2=Wilson, Robert Andrew |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacogn00wils/page/n316 184]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Bouton |first=M. E. |title=Learning and behavior: A contemporary synthesis |year=2007 |publisher=Sunderland |url=http://sites.sinauer.com/bouton/glossary.html#Habituation |access-date= 9 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831133911/http://sites.sinauer.com/bouton/glossary.html#Habituation |archive-date=31 August 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==== Associative learning ====

{{main|Association (psychology)}}
{{further|Classical conditioning|Operant conditioning}}

Associative learning in animal behaviour is any learning process in which a new response becomes associated with a particular stimulus.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/associative-learning |title=Associative learning |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=9 September 2014}}</ref> The first studies of associative learning were made by the Russian [[physiologist]] [[Ivan Pavlov]], who observed that dogs trained to associate food with the ringing of a bell would salivate on hearing the bell.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hudmon |first=Andrew |title=Learning and memory |page=[https://archive.org/details/learningmemory0000hudm/page/35 35] |isbn=978-0-7910-8638-4 |year=2005 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/learningmemory0000hudm/page/35 }}</ref>

==== Imprinting ====

{{main|Imprinting (psychology)}}
[[File:Moose-Imprinting-sr81-15.jpg|right|thumb|[[Imprinting (psychology)|Imprinting]] in a [[moose]].]]

[[imprinting (psychology)|Imprinting]] enables the young to discriminate the members of their own species, vital for reproductive success. This important type of learning only takes place in a very limited period of time. [[Konrad Lorenz]] observed that the young of birds such as [[goose|geese]] and [[chicken]]s followed their mothers spontaneously from almost the first day after they were hatched, and he discovered that this response could be imitated by an arbitrary stimulus if the eggs were incubated artificially and the stimulus were presented during a critical period that continued for a few days after hatching.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mercer |first=Jean |title=Understanding attachment: parenting, child care, and emotional development |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-275-98217-1 |page=19}}</ref>

==== Cultural learning ====

{{main|Cultural transmission in animals}}

===== Observational learning =====

{{main|Observational learning}}

===== Imitation =====

{{main|Imitation}}

[[Imitation]] is an advanced behavior whereby an animal observes and exactly replicates the behavior of another.
The National Institutes of Health reported that capuchin monkeys preferred the company of researchers who imitated them to that of researchers who did not. The monkeys not only spent more time with their imitators but also preferred to engage in a simple task with them even when provided with the option of performing the same task with a non-imitator.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nih.gov/news/health/aug2009/nichd-13.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822171642/http://www.nih.gov/news/health/aug2009/nichd-13.htm |archive-date=2009-08-22 |title=Imitation Promotes Social Bonding in Primates, August 13, 2009 News Release |publisher=National Institutes of Health |date=2009-08-13 |access-date=2011-11-08}}</ref> Imitation has been observed in recent research on chimpanzees; not only did these chimps copy the actions of another individual, when given a choice, the chimps preferred to imitate the actions of the higher-ranking elder chimpanzee as opposed to the lower-ranking young chimpanzee.<ref name="FerrariHorner2010">{{cite journal |last1=Horner |first1=Victoria  |display-authors=etal |title=Prestige Affects Cultural Learning in Chimpanzees |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=5 |issue=5 |date=19 May 2010 |pages=e10625 |issn=1932-6203 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0010625 |pmid=20502702 |pmc=2873264 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...510625H|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===== Stimulus and local enhancement =====

Animals can learn using observational learning but without the process of imitation. One way is ''stimulus enhancement'' in which individuals become interested in an object as the result of observing others interacting with the object.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Spence | first1=K. W. | year=1937 | title=Experimental studies of learning and higher mental processes in infra-human primates | journal=Psychological Bulletin | volume=34 | issue=10 | pages=806–850 | doi=10.1037/h0061498}}</ref> Increased interest in an object can result in object manipulation which allows for new object-related behaviours by trial-and-error learning. Haggerty (1909) devised an experiment in which a monkey climbed up the side of a cage, placed its arm into a wooden chute, and pulled a rope in the chute to release food. Another monkey was provided an opportunity to obtain the food after watching a monkey go through this process on four occasions. The monkey performed a different method and finally succeeded after trial-and-error.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Haggerty | first1=M. E. | year=1909 | title=Imitation in monkeys | url=https://zenodo.org/record/1426775| journal=Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology | volume=19 | issue=4 | pages=337–455 | doi=10.1002/cne.920190402}}</ref> In local enhancement, a demonstrator attracts an observer's attention to a particular location.<ref name="mechanisms">{{cite book |author1=Hoppitt, W. |author2=Laland, K. N. |year=2013 |title=Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models. Princeton University Press |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4650-4}}</ref> Local enhancement has been observed to transmit foraging information among birds, rats and pigs.<ref name="foraging">{{cite journal |last1=Galef |first1=B. G. |last2=Giraldeau |first2=L.-A. |year=2001 |title=Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: Causal mechanisms and adaptive functions |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=3–15 |doi=10.1006/anbe.2000.1557 |pmid=11170692|s2cid=38321280 }}</ref> The stingless bee (''[[Trigona corvina]]'') uses local enhancement to locate other members of their colony and food resources.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Social information in the Stingless Bee, Trigona corvina Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Apidae): The use of visual and olfactory cues at the food site |journal=Sociobiology |year=2014 |issn=0361-6525 |pages=401–406 |volume=61 |issue=4 |doi= 10.13102/sociobiology.v61i4.401-406 |author1= F.M.J. Sommerlandt |author2=W. Huber |author3=J. Spaethe|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===== Social transmission =====

{{see also|Cultural transmission in animals}}

A well-documented example of social transmission of a behaviour occurred in a group of [[macaque]]s on [[Hachijojima]] Island, Japan. The macaques lived in the inland forest until the 1960s, when a group of researchers started giving them potatoes on the beach: soon, they started venturing onto the beach, picking the potatoes from the sand, and cleaning and eating them.<ref name=WilsonSociobiology>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Edward O. |author-link=Edward O. Wilson |title=Sociobiology: the new synthesis |page=170 |year=2000 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00089-6}}</ref> About one year later, an individual was observed bringing a potato to the sea, putting it into the water with one hand, and cleaning it with the other. This behaviour was soon expressed by the individuals living in contact with her; when they gave birth, this behaviour was also expressed by their young—a form of social transmission.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/japanese_macaque.htm |title=Japanese Macaque – Macaca fuscata |publisher=Blueplanetbiomes.org |access-date=2011-11-08}}</ref>

==== Teaching ====

{{see also|Animal culture#Teaching}}

Teaching is a highly specialized aspect of learning in which the "teacher" (demonstrator) adjusts their behaviour to increase the probability of the "pupil" (observer) achieving the desired end-result of the behaviour. For example, [[orca]]s are known to intentionally beach themselves to catch [[pinniped]] prey.<ref name=rendell>{{cite journal |last1=Rendell |first1=Luke |last2=Whitehead |first2=Hal |title=Culture in whales and dolphins |journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences |volume=24 |issue=2 |year=2001 |pages=309–324 |url=http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~barrett/documents/Asoundapproachtothestudyofculture.pdf |doi=10.1017/s0140525x0100396x |pmid=11530544|s2cid=24052064 }}</ref> Mother orcas teach their young to catch pinnipeds by pushing them onto the shore and encouraging them to attack the prey. Because the mother orca is altering her behaviour to help her offspring learn to catch prey, this is evidence of teaching.<ref name=rendell/> Teaching is not limited to mammals. Many insects, for example, have been observed demonstrating various forms of teaching to obtain food. [[Ant]]s, for example, will guide each other to food sources through a process called "[[tandem running]]," in which an ant will guide a companion ant to a source of food.<ref name=hoppit>{{cite journal | last1=Hoppitt | first1=W. J. | last2=Brown | first2=G. R. | last3=Kendal | first3=R. | last4=Rendell | first4=L. | last5=Thornton | first5=A. | last6=Webster | first6=M. M. | last7=Laland | first7=K. N. | year=2008 | title=Lessons from animal teaching | journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution | volume=23 | issue=9 | pages=486–493 | doi=10.1016/j.tree.2008.05.008 | pmid=18657877| bibcode=2008TEcoE..23..486H }}</ref> It has been suggested that the pupil ant is able to learn this route to obtain food in the future or teach the route to other ants. This behaviour of teaching is also exemplified by crows, specifically [[New Caledonian crow]]s. The adults (whether individual or in families) teach their young adolescent offspring how to construct and utilize tools. For example, ''[[Pandanus]]'' branches are used to extract insects and other larvae from holes within trees.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rutz|first1=Christian|last2=Bluff|first2=Lucas A. |last3=Reed |first3=Nicola |last4=Troscianko |first4=Jolyon|last5=Newton|first5=Jason|last6=Inger|first6=Richard |last7=Kacelnik|first7=Alex|last8=Bearhop|first8=Stuart|date=September 2010 |title=The Ecological Significance of Tool Use in New Caledonian Crows|journal=Science |volume=329|issue=5998|pages=1523–1526|doi=10.1126/science.1192053|pmid=20847272|bibcode=2010Sci...329.1523R|s2cid=8888382}}</ref>