In Chapter 3, we'll start our in-depth discussion of classical conditioning. And we mentioned that classical conditioning involves automatic, involuntary, unlearned behaviors that you have no conscious control over. Another term for these types of behaviors is elicited behaviors. So an elicited behavior is a behavior that is automatically drawn out by a certain stimulus. So there is some stimulus in the environment and in response to that stimulus, you have some automatic involuntary unlearned response to that stimulus.
So an elicited behavior is an involuntary response to a stimulus. So examples would be your startle response. If you're exposed to the stimulus of a gunshot, your automatic involuntary response would be to be startled.
Another example of an elicited behavior. would be your eyes watering in response to dust or dirt in your eye. So when you're exposed to the stimulus of having something in your eye, your automatic elicited behavior would be to have your eye watered.
So there are two types of elicited behaviors, reflexes and fixed action patterns. So a reflex is a simple automatic response to a stimulus. So examples would be your startle response that we just talked about.
Your orienting response. That's when you hear something, you automatically turn your body toward the thing that you. So why do we have these automatic reflexes?
They are tied closely to survival. Think about your startle response. If you hear a loud noise, you get startled. Your muscles automatically start to tense.
That is to prepare you either to flee what could be a predator. or to defend yourself. The orienting response, if you hear something, you automatically turn your body toward the thing you hear.
Number one allows you to perceive whatever it is that you just heard and number two, now that you're facing it, you're better prepared to defend yourself as opposed to if you heard a loud noise and stayed facing away from that, you'd be less able to defend yourself. So reflexes help us survive. The next type of elicited behavior would be fixed action patterns. These are unlearned. This will be an unlearned fixed sequence of responses elicited by a specific stimulus.
And the difference between a reflex and a fixed action pattern, you remember that a reflex was a simple response as opposed to a fixed action pattern, which is a sequence of responses. So it's not a single solitary response. It's a chain of responses.
So fixed patterns are adaptive responses. that have evolved to help animals cope with consistent aspects of their environment. So when an animal consistently deals with the same stimuli in their environment, they evolve these behaviors that allow them to cope with these consistent aspects of their environment. Examples of fixed action patterns would be things like if an animal, you know, uses the bathroom, you'll see them then turn around and kick dirt or kick grass over their excrement.
And this is to keep predators from being able to track them. And you'll see even if you have domesticated cats or dogs where there are no predators in their backyard, they will still show the same fixed action pattern of trying to cover their excrement. Even sometimes if they go out and there is no grass, there's no dirt. You have carpet in your house.
They'll kick the carpet or kick the hardwood because they have the same pattern of behavior. Another example would be a squirrel hiding nuts. or acorns when it comes to be wintertime.
So you have the stimulus of that change in weather. It starts to get cold. The squirrel automatically goes into this fixed action pattern of collecting nuts or acorns for the winter.
Hibernation with bears is another example of a fixed action pattern. So there are some stimulus in the environment that causes the animal to go into this unlearned, innate pattern of behavior. So the animal is not learning this from anyone. It's just inborn. to show this involuntary automatic behavior.
So examples of stimuli in the environment that could cause a fixed action pattern to begin. These would be things like changes in the temperature, the presence of a mate, the presence of food, the presence of a predator can all be stimuli that cause a fixed action pattern to begin. So problems arise when there's a sudden change in the environment.
So, again, we said that these behaviors help them adapt to their environment. But when there's a certain change in the environment and the behavior does not change, that fixed action pattern can become maladaptive. An example of this is that when a deer is pursued by a predator, by an animal predator, their natural defense or their fixed action pattern is to run in a zigzag pattern.
And that is to try to to lose the predator, which is fine when you're being pursued by, you know, for some other type of animal predator. Well, what about when you're being pursued by a car? So if a deer is on a road and there is a car behind him, logically, the most adaptive way to get away from the car would be to veer in one direction or the other to get off of the car's path. But because deer have this fixed action pattern to zigzag when faced by a predator, they do that even when being pursued by a car. So that fixed action pattern has been adaptive and now increases their chances of being hit by the car.
So, again, these patterns can become no longer useful if there is some sudden change in the environment that doesn't give the animal time to adapt to the change. So organisms that can learn or modify their behavior to better fit a changing environment have the best chance of survival. So those that can adapt tend to survive longer.
So there is some debate about whether or not humans have fixed action patterns. Some people say, yes, that human beings do have fixed action patterns. And one example that comes up is the behavior of yawning. So if you see another person yawn, your automatic interior response is to yawn also.
And that is something that some people say is an example of a human fixed action pattern. Other people argue that humans don't really have these types of behaviors just because so much behavior now is learned and so much is passed down through culture that we don't tend to rely on these types of instinctual responses like animals do. So don't really have fixed action patterns.
So there's really no clear answer to that. That's a debate that's going on about whether or not we have these types of behaviors.