Reflex, Taxis, and Instinct Cognitive Functions of the Mind • Mediate Adaptive Behavior – Interactions Between Person, World • Form Internal Representations of the World – Perception, Memory • Reflect on this Knowledge – Reasoning, Problem-Solving • Use Knowledge to Guide Behavior – , Decision, Choice, Action • Communicate Knowledge to Others – Language Traditional Associationist View of Learning after Aristotle, De Memoria (250 BCE) and Hume, Treatise of Human Nature (1739) The Mind Forms Associations Between... • Stimuli – Events in the Environment – Their Correlates and Consequences • Responses – Organism’s Behaviors – Their Correlates and Consequences Innate Responses to Stimulation • Reflexes – Involve Individual Muscles • Taxes – Involve Entire Body • Instincts (Fixed Action Patterns) – Very Discriminating Reflexes after Descartes, De Homine (c. 1633/1662) • Automatic Response to Adequate Stimulus – Patellar Reflex – Eyeblink Reflex – All “Spinal” Reflexes • Involve Single Muscles • Mediated by Spinal, Cranial Nerves – No Involvement of “Higher” Cortical Centers The Decorticate Pigeon as Reflex Machine Flourens (19th c.) • • • • • Preserved Righting Stepping Flying Swallowing Irritation • • • • Abolished Flight from Irritation Avoidance Voluntary Action Emotionality Reflexes in the Human Infant Teitelbaum (1967) • Reflexes of Approach – Rooting – Grasping – Plantarflexion • Reflexes of Avoidance – Eye Closure – Mouth Closure – Dorsiflexion • Babinski Reflex • Stepping Advantages and Limitations of Reflexes • Respond to External Stimulation – No Need for Learning • Limited Repertoire • No Control by Goals, Intentions Taxes • Gross Orientation Responses – Entire Skeletal Musculature • Positive vs. Negative • Phototaxes • Geotaxes Kangaroos.org Instincts (Fixed Action Patterns) Tinbergen (1951) • Complex, Stereotyped Action Patterns – Rigidly Organized • Respond to Releasing Stimulus • Innate – Not Modified by Learning • Species-Specific – Universal within Species Ethology Imprinting in Greylag Geese Lorenz (1935) • “First” Moving Object • Indiscriminate • Critical Period