Animal Behavior

There have been continuous efforts from psychologists in revealing animal behavior. The White rat has been used by many psychologists in analyzing animal behavior although it has not served to the interests of psychologists. To learn more about animal behavior, various species have been subjected to different conditions and methods of experiments. Instinctive behavior patterns are important in understanding the behavior of animals.  Animal behavior can be controlled through conditioned environment. Animals have been trained to take up various tasks such as shows. Dolphin and birds were amongst the animals introduced to training. Animals have been trained to participate in various tasks such as games (Breland  Breland, 1961). The conditioned behavior has been used for shows and tourist attraction. There are several species which have been conditioned.. There are some shortfalls in conditioning animal behavior. The conditioned behavior may trigger another pattern of behavior. For example, the raccoon was conditioned to picking coins and depositing them in some place. Picking a coin was easy although it became difficult to drop the coin in a container. Reinforcement worked it out.

There are some limitations in instrumental conditioning of animals. The evolutionary history of a species must be understood before conditioning. It is a must to learn and have knowledge in the instinctive patterns of species. This means that conditioning can not be carried without understanding these patterns. Another limitation comes in following the ecological placement of species. Conditioning also provoked interference between learned behavior and the instinctive behavior (Breland  Breland, 1961). This can be seen from the raccoon trained to pick coins. The animals have a tendency of rubbing the coin without letting it go.

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