2.2. Instinct as the basis for the formation of animal behavior

Any behavioral act is a set of interrelated components: instinct and learning. They can not determine the behavior of the animal separately from each other. At any one moment, one component prevails, but they do not exist in their pure form. The separation of instinct and learning in behavioral reactions is rather arbitrary, therefore it is often difficult to implement, although each of these components has its own characteristics.

Instinctive behavior can be divided into a number of instinctive actions, or instinctive acts, which, in turn, consist of instinctive movements (separate postures, sounds, etc.).

The instinctive component of behavior determines both the functioning of the organs of the animal itself and the orientation of this functioning in time and space. Thus, not only how these organs will be used is hereditarily fixed, but also when and in what direction.

Learning as a plastic component of behavior cannot change the functioning of organs, but can affect the orientation of their functions. For example, an animal that does not have flexible fingers cannot be trained to hold a glass. He does not have morphological and functional prerequisites for this, it can perform only those actions for which his organs are adapted. However, by training (i.e. artificial learning), an animal can be made to use its limbs at a certain time in a certain way. The main thing is that the way of using the limbs itself is natural for this animal. Therefore, learning can influence the orientation of the animal's functions in time and space, but the functions themselves are determined by instinctive movements.

Thus, the process of vital activity of an organism is based on instinctive reactions, and elements of learning are completed on their basis. Congenital reactions provide all vital functions, the process of metabolism, as well as such important aspects of animal life as reproduction and caring for offspring. The development of the mental component of the behavior of animals is necessary in the process of evolution in order to adapt the instinctive reactions to environmental conditions, to ensure the adaptation of the animal to these conditions. Hereditary behavioral reactions can not take into account the variety of conditions that each representative of the species will face. In addition, instinctive behavior includes the basic mechanisms for regulating the functioning and its orientation in space and in time, and the process of learning complements this adjustment and orientation.