Logan: Principles of Learning

                    INNATE PREDISPOSITIONS (INSTINCT)

          All organisms are born with or are predisposed to acquire
          certain behavioral tendencies; they may also be predisposed
          not to acquire certain other tendencies.


     Although the focus of this book is on learning, by which we mean a
relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience, we
should acknowledge from the outset that all organisms are born with some
kind of nervous system and certain biophysical/biochemical properties
that are characteristic of the species.  Some behavioral tendencies
require little or no practice, the simplest of which are the REFLEXES.  
The knee-jerk to a tap just below the knee-cap, the eye-blink to a puff
of air in the eye, and the withdrawal of a finger from a hot object are
familiar examples.  Organisms also show more complex innate behavioral
tendencies (INSTINCTS).  These are typically related to feeding and
reproductive activities and range from sucking in newborn mammals to
large scale migratory patterns.  Those involving orientation of the
entire body are called TROPISMS.  For example, moths are phototropic
(orient toward a light) and worms are geotropic (orient toward the
earth).  Although we pause only long enough to acknowledge these innate
behavioral tendencies, one should not underestimate their vital
importance to an understanding of behavior.

     Innate predispositions also enter into an analysis of learning
processes.  On the stimulus side, some organisms such as birds and
humans are visually dominant; others such as rodents and fish are more
controlled by auditory and gustatory (smell) stimuli.  On the response
side, most organisms are predisposed toward flight behavior in reaction
to painful events.  At the motivational level, there is more variability
in behavior based on hunger than on thirst, and at the associative level,
some stimuli may be more readily associated with some responses that with
others, although a stimulus that is relatively ineffective with respect
to one response may be excellent for a different response.

     These facts are sometimes considered to be "constraints" on learning,
but it is more appropriate simply to recognize that the rate and limit of
learning depend on the organism involved, the nature of the stimulus and
the response, and the type of motivation.  One dramatic finding is that
illness is more likely to be associated with taste stimuli than with
visual or auditory events.  Especially troublesome are instances where
learning progresses well at first but then falls when, for some reason, 
the learned response begins to "poop out".


     Among the many examples of innate predispositions is the phenomenon
of IMPRINTING.  During an apparently critical period (between 17 and 20
hours after hatching), the object to which a young duckling is exposed
becomes an emotionally-significant object.  The duckling will follow the
object (which may be a human, or a wooden model of some animal) around
and will utter distress calls if the object is removed from sight.
Furthermore, after reaching maturity, the duck will attempt to mate with
objects that are similar to the imprinted one.  This phenomenon is
normally quite adaptive; in the wild, the object a duckling will likely
see at that age is its mother and species identification is assured.
However, imprinting does not fit well into any of the general learning
paradigms we shall be reviewing, and the notion of there being a critical
period for acquisition may have wider generality than the particular
instance of imprinting.

     The analysis of the learning process would certainly be greatly
simplified if we could assert as a general rule that the principles
apply equally and without reservation on all organisms, to any stimulus
to which that organism is responsive, to any behavior of which that
organism is capable, and regardless of the motivational conditions.  The
Principle of Innate Predispositions emphasizes the fact that such a
rule is not correct; there are many exceptions to it.  However, even this
large number is actually very small in relation to the total domain
that would include all species, all stimuli, all responses, and all
motivational states.  Accordingly, I recommend that this rule of the
universal generality of the Principles of Learning be adopted as a
working hypothesis, yet always being alert for the exceptions that will
be encountered now and then.  Someday we will know how to state the
principles such that there are no exceptions; meanwhile, we are better
advised to accept the principles as being the best understanding of
behavior that we have to date.

     This is particularly true of the principles included in this series
because they do, indeed, apply to the behavior of humans.  Very few of us
whose focus is on animal learning are really interested in rats, pigeons,
monkeys, or dogs and cats just for the sake of understanding the behavior
of those animals.  Our interest is really in the behavior of people --
all kinds of people.  We believe that there are some basic principles of
learning that apply to all animals.  The present volume attempts to state
some of those principles and to illustrate their relevance to an
understanding of human behavior.

     (I do NOT mean that these principles account for ALL human behavior.
There are additional principles that are uniquely human and that
supplement these basic one.  But if you want to learn how to control your
natural tendencies to behave like non-human animals, or to teach others
including your children how to "behave," you would be well advised to
understand the basis for those tendencies.)

     Although out concern will be with the learning process, we need to
respect the marvel of our genetic endowment.  Although it is obvious that
we learn to talk, close examination reveals that much of this "learning"
is based on innate predispositions.  We have a unique and incomparable
vocal apparatus that all infants are predisposed to exercise in sometimes
almost constant babbling.  In some very primitive sense, speech sounds
are naturally different from other sounds and they are automatically
processed in a specialized area of the left side of our brains.  We speak
the language of our parents, but that language has many syntactical and
grammatical rules that seem to defy being reduced to any simple set of
associations.  In sum, language is the most elegant accomplishment of
humankind; it is what most dramatically sets humans apart from other
animals; and it is very significantly dependent on innate predispositions
-- which means that it is not so much of an accomplishment after all.

     The extent to which innate predispositions observable in other
animals applies to humans remains to be determined by future experimental
analysis.  When we study the hoarding behavior of many rodents, we may be
observing a basic process that occurs in those people who are driven to
acquire wealth.  When we study the territorality of many other primates,
we may be observing a basic process to occurs when humans define and
defend their property.  Even rats are born with a predisposition toward
handedness that is poorly understood, and the extent of homosexuality in
the animal kingdom remains a prime object for future research.  
     
TERMS: Association, hypothesis, imprinting, instinct, learning, motivation, 
reflex, respondent, response, stimulus, tropism