Essential Idea:
Behavioural patterns can
be inherited or learned
Understandings:
- Innate behaviour is inherited from parents and so develops independently of the environment
- Autonomic and involuntary responses are referred to as reflexes
- Reflex arcs comprise the neurons that mediate reflexes
- Reflex conditioning involves forming new associations
- Learned behaviour develops as a result of experience
- Imprinting is learning occurring at a particular life stage and is independent of the consequences of behaviour
- Operant conditioning is a form of learning that consists of trial and error experiences
- Learning is the acquisition of skill or knowledge
- Memory is the process of encoding, storing and accessing information
Applications:
- Withdrawal reflex of the hand from a painful stimulus
- Pavlov’s experiments into reflex conditioning in dogs
- The role of inheritance and learning in the development of birdsong
Skills:
- Analysis of data from invertebrate behaviour experiments in terms of the effect on chances of survival and reproduction
- Drawing and labelling a diagram of a reflex arc for a pain withdrawal reflex