Modules and Modes in Foraging Behavior

IBN 9408366 Timberlake 本研究试图使用“行为系统”的概念，联合收割机动物行为学研究的“本能”的行为与实验室研究表明学习的重要性，在确定有目的的行为。 “行为系统”指的是刺激过滤，预先组织的反应组件，以及围绕特定功能组织的动机状态，例如觅食。 Timberlake博士认为，学习机制的进化是为了在这样一个功能系统的背景下改变行为。 他还假设，通过熟悉的实验室程序（如巴甫洛夫和操作性条件反射）产生的学习实例可以在功能系统中进行有益的研究。 他的实验利用老鼠和鸽子的觅食系统的先验知识来预测条件反应的形式和在实验室程序下学习的难易程度。 同时，这些实验利用实验室操作的分析能力，进一步发展和完善我们对摄食-觅食系统的认识。 实验的重点是觅食相关的动机状态的序列的特性：一般搜索状态的控制，如迷宫环境中的运动搜索测量;焦点搜索状态的控制，特别是因为它涉及到的“迷信”行为的调节;和学习链的行为之间的关系一般和焦点搜索状态的过渡。 研究结果应该澄清在实验室和自然环境中学习对行为的贡献。

IBN 9408366 Timberlake The present research attempts to use the concept of "behavior systems" to combine the ethological study of "instinctive" behavior with laboratory research demonstrating the importance of learning in determining purposive behavior. A "behavior system" refers to stimulus filtering, preorganized response components, and motivational states organized around a specific function, such as foraging for food. Dr. Timberlake assumes that learning mechanisms evolved to alter behavior within the context of such a functional system. He also assumes that the examples of learning produced by familiar laboratory procedures, such as Pavlovian and operant conditioning, can be profitably studied within a functional system. His experiments use prior knowledge of the feeding-foraging systems of rats and pigeons to predict the form of conditioned responding and the ease of learning under laboratory procedures. At the same time, these experiments use the analytic power of the laboratory manipulations to further develop and refine our knowledge of the feeding-foraging system. The experiments focus on characteristics of the sequence of motivational states related to foraging: the control of the general search state, as measured by locomotor search of maze environments; the control of the focal search state, especially as it relates to the conditioning of "superstitious" behavior; and the relation of learned chains of behavior to transitions between general and focal search states. The results should clarify the contribution of learning to behavior in both the laboratory and natural environments.