Learned vs Instinctive Behavior

A dog rolls over and gets a treat, so she rolls over again. This is an example of a...

• learned behavior
• inherited behavior
• physical trait
• instinct

Which is an example of a learned characteristic?

• Color of a dog's fur
• A mouse successfully running a maze
• Color-blindness
• Blinking your eyes several times a minute

Smelts are fish that lay their eggs in the sand of a beach. When the eggs hatch, the babies know to go to the water. This is an example of...

• inherited behavior
• camouflage
• hibernation
• learned behavior

Crows are black birds with excellent hearing. In the wild they live 6-7 years. Some crows in Japan open hard-shelled nuts by dropping them in front of moving cars. Which of these is a learned behavior?

• excellent hearing
• dropping nuts in front of cars
• living 6-7 years
• having black feathers

Pufferfish puffs up several times their normal size

• learned behavior
• instinct

Why is a spider spinning a web an instinctive behavior?

• It learns how to spin the web from its mother.

• It learns how to spin a web through insight learning.

• It is born knowing how to spin a web.

• It learns how to spin a web through observational learning.

A scientist observes sea otters using rocks to break open clamshells. Which of these investigations would best help the scientist determine whether this skill is a learned or an inherited behavior?

• Determining what sizes and kinds of rocks are used most often by sea otters
• Determining whether shellfish are an important food source in the diet of sea otters
• Raising young sea otters away from adult otters that use rocks and observing whether the young otters use rocks
• Observing families of sea otters over time to see whether adults that use rocks have offspring that use rocks

A physical characteristic that an organism is born with and is passed to the organism from its parents is called an:

• Learned Behavior
• Offspring
• Inherited Physical Trait

Animal behavior that develops from observation or instruction is called:

• Trait
• Learned Behavior
• Offspring

a characteristic that is passed from parents to their offspring

• inherited traits

• instinctive behavior

• acquired trait

• learned behavior