PSYC 2330 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Supernormal Stimulus, Efferent Nerve Fiber, Reflex Arc

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2330
• Professor: Francesco Leri

Document Summary

Organisms are born with pre-existing behaviour systems and tendencies that constrain how learning occurs and what changes one may expect from a training procedure. Learning is most successful if it takes into account the pre-existing behaviour structures for the organism. As a consequence, the eliciting stimulus usually produces the reflex response, which rarely occurs otherwise. Reflexes contribute to the well-being of the organism in many ways (ex. safety, feeding infants) Modal action patterns modal action pattern: (map) a response pattern exhibited by most, if not all, members of a species in much the same way. Modal action patterns are used as basic units of behaviour in ethological investigations of behaviour. An important feature of maps is that the threshold for eliciting such activities varies. The same stimulus can have widely different effects depending on the physiological state of the animal and its recent actions.