Understanding Innate Behaviors, Learning, and Memory

Understanding Innate Behaviors

Innate behaviors are fixed patterns to complex vital actions, which appeared during the formation or genesis of a species. The distinctive characteristics of these behaviors are:

1. Specific to the species.
2. Highly stereotyped.
3. Once initiated, they proceed to completion.
4. Not significantly learned.
5. Resistant to change.
6. Triggered by a specific stimulus.

Habituation and Sensitization: Non-Associative Learning

Although innate reflexes are unconditioned, they can serve as a basis for learning new reflexes. Learned patterns, however, cannot be fixed or conditioned. Habituation and sensitization are mechanisms that allow organisms to change their structures and functions through interaction with the environment. Habituation (H) and sensitization (S) are forms of non-associative learning, occurring in all species and fundamental to an organism's adaptation to its environment.

Habituation Explained

Habituation is the phenomenon where we get used to something, defined as a decreased response to a repetitive stimulation.

Sensitization Explained

Sensitization is an increase in response to events in the environment. These processes serve to:

1. Help organisms manage constant stimuli. These processes help organize and direct behavior.
2. Reduce reaction to irrelevant stimuli.
3. They are not innate behaviors or associative learning because there is no association of events.

Causes of Forgetting

The causes of forgetting are varied:

Brain Injury or Degeneration

Forgetting can result from an injury or brain degeneration, such as in Alzheimer's or Korsakoff's syndrome.

Repression (Motivated Forgetting)

Repression involves forgetting painful or disruptive information unconsciously. This differs from suppression, which is a conscious attempt not to think about something.

Interference

Interference occurs due to competition between experiences. There are two types of interference:

• Proactive Interference: Previously learned information makes new learning difficult.
• Retroactive Interference: Recent learning interferes with the recall of past information.

Lack of Processing

Information may never be properly processed initially, leading to forgetting. Memories can also dissipate over time if not used.

Context-Dependent Memory

Information can be hard to recover because the learning environment is different. Memories acquired in a specific state are best recalled when the individual returns to that state but are less accessible in another state.