4.1. Learning process

The mental activity of any animal, the diversity of its behavioral forms are inextricably linked with a process such as learning.

All components of behavior are influenced by two aspects, each of which is indisputably important. First, the species experience is of great importance, which is fixed in the process of evolution of the species, and is transmitted to a particular individual in a genetically fixed form. Such components of behavior will be instinctive and innate. However, there is a second aspect - the accumulation of individual experience of an individual in the process of its life. At the same time, the acquisition of experience by an individual occurs in a rather rigid species-typical framework.

G. Timbrok identifies two forms of accumulation of individual individual experience: obligate and optional. In the process of obligatory learning, an individual acquires individual experience, which does not depend on the conditions of its life, but is necessary for survival to any representative of this species. The optional learning includes individual devices that a particular individual acquires depending on the conditions of its existence. This component of the animal's behavior is the most flexible, it helps to rearrange the type-specific behavior in the specific conditions of this environment. At the same time, unlike obligate learning, optional learning will differ in different individuals of the same species.

Instinctive behavior may be subject to changes in the effector sphere (motor reactions), sensory sphere (signal perception), or in both areas of behavior simultaneously (the latter option occurs most often).

If learning takes over the working organ, recombination of congenital motor elements of behavior most often occurs, but new motor elements may arise. As a rule, such motor elements are formed in the early stages of ontogenesis, for example, the imitative singing of young birds. In mammals, such acquired reactions play a major role in the process of cognitive and research activities, in the development of intelligence.

If learning occurs in the sensory sphere, the animal acquires new signals. The acquisition of such significant new signals by an individual allows to expand its ability to orient in the environment. Initially, these signals are almost indifferent to the animal, unlike biologically significant key stimuli, but over time, in the process of an individual’s accumulation of individual experience, initially almost indifferent signals acquire a signal value.

In the process of learning, an individual selectively extracts from the environment certain components that are biologically neutral to become biologically significant. The basis for this are various processes in the higher parts of the central nervous system, which are determined by the action of both internal and external factors. Afferent synthesis occurs (synthesis of perceived stimuli), then the stimuli are compared with information that was previously perceived and stored in memory. As a result, the individual becomes ready to perform certain response actions to stimuli. After committing them to the central nervous system on the basis of feedback receives information about the results of actions taken. This information is analyzed, on the basis of which a new afferent synthesis occurs. Thus, in the central nervous system not only are innate, instinctive behavioral programs, but new, individual programs are constantly being formed, on which the learning process is based.

It follows from the above that the process of learning is very complex, it is based on the formation of programs for upcoming actions. Such a formation is the result of a complex of processes: comparison of external and internal stimuli, specific and individual experience, recording the parameters of the committed action and checking the results of these actions.

The value of the learning process. Learning processes are most important for an animal in the early stages of search behavior. Hereditary behavioral programs can not take into account the diversity of situations in which the individual will be, so she can only rely on their own experience. At the same time, timely orientation of the animal in conditions of variable environmental factors is extremely important. It must quickly and correctly choose an effective mode of action at the initial stage of a behavioral act. On this will depend on the speed and ease of achieving the final phase of the act. Thus, the acquired elements must inevitably be embedded in the instinctive behavior of individuals.

Such embedding is hereditarily fixed, therefore, one can speak of the species-typicality of the limits of learning. The process of learning has a definite, genetically fixed framework beyond which an individual cannot learn anything. In higher vertebrates, this framework may be much wider than is necessary in the specific conditions of their life. Due to this, higher animals have the ability to change their behavioral reactions in extreme conditions, their behavior becomes more flexible. In contrast, in lower animals, the ability to learn is extremely small, mainly their behavior is determined by hereditary fixed reactions. Thus, the breadth of the range of learning can be an indicator of the mental development of the animal. The wider the framework within which an individual can perform behavioral reactions, the more it is capable of accumulating individual experience, the better its instinctive behavior is corrected, and the more labile the search phase of its behavior will be.

Congenital behavior and learning abilities are evolutionarily related. In the process of evolution, instinctive behavior is constantly complicated, which requires a wide range of learning abilities. The expansion of this framework allows you to make the innate behavior more flexible, and therefore raises the instinctive behavior to a higher level of development. The process of evolution encompasses not only the very content of instinctive behavior, but also the possibility of enriching it with individual experience. At the lower stages of evolution, the possibility of learning is limited and manifests itself only in such phenomena as addiction and training.

In the process of habituation , the response to repetitive irritation that has no biological significance gradually disappears. This process is opposed to the process of training, during which there is an improvement in instinctive action, due to the accumulation of individual experience.

Primitive, simplest forms of behavior do not disappear in the process of evolution, they are replaced by more complex forms. Often, other forms overlay elementary forms of behavior, as a result of which the former acquire complexity and lability. Thus, the process of habituation, which is already evident in the simplest, can be observed in a complicated form in higher vertebrates. For example, R. Hinde’s experiments on mice showed that the responses of these animals to multiple unsupported acoustic signals weaken at different speeds. However, differences in habituation are determined not only by the different intensity of the stimuli (as in lower animals), but also by the individual variability of the habituation process itself in higher animals.

Skills. In the process of evolutionary development, a qualitatively new learning component, a skill, appears in the behavior of animals . Skill is the central form of optional learning. According to the Russian psychologist A.N. Leontiev (1903-1979, "Problems of the development of the psyche", 1959; "The development of memory", 1931), if we consider skills as any connections that arise in the process of acquiring individual experience, this concept becomes too vague and cannot be used for strict scientific analysis. Thus, the concept of "skill" and "learning" must be strictly distinguished.

The ability to develop skills is manifested at a certain level of evolutionary development of the animal. Crucial for the formation of the skill will be the success of the performed motor actions, as well as the reinforcement of these movements with a positive result. Learning can occur on the basis of information that an individual has independently obtained during an active search for an irritant or in the process of communicating with other individuals. The last option includes the process of imitation and a variety of learning processes.

It is important to note that the skill is formed as a result of the exercise. In order for it to be preserved, constant training is necessary, it will allow to improve the skill. In the absence of systematic training, skills are gradually being destroyed.

There are many special methods for studying skills: the labyrinth method, the problem box method (problem cell), the workaround method (for more on these methods see 1.2.) Their distinguishing feature is that the animal must choose a particular signal or method to solve a specific task. actions. When using the maze method, the basis for the formation of a skill for an animal will be the memorization of the object and the path to it. With repeated repetition of experience in the same conditions, the animal will cover the distance to the food object in a constant, short way. In this situation, the skill of finding food in the labyrinth becomes stereotypical and comes to automatism. In general, stereotype is generally characterized by the most primitive skills. Greater plasticity is characteristic of such skills only in the initial stages of education. On the contrary, skills of higher orders are distinguished by rather considerable plasticity at all stages of formation.

Skills development techniques. There are two methods of experimental development of skills: the method of the American psychologist and behaviorist B.F. Skinner (Behavior of Organisms, 1938) (operant, or instrumental, conditioning) and the classical method of I.P. Pavlova.

When developing conditioned reflexes according to Pavlov’s method, the animal is initially invited to perform certain movements, which it must perform in order to receive reinforcement. With the Skinner method, the animal must independently find these movements, possibly through trial and error. An example would be an experiment with a rat, which is placed in a cage. She will receive food reinforcement only if she accidentally presses the bar attached to the cell wall. In this case, a temporary connection is formed in the nervous system of the rat between the accidental pressing of the bar and the appearance of the feeder. It is possible and significantly complicate the experiment: to give the animal the opportunity to choose one of two actions that will lead to different, opposite, results. For example, when you press the pedal in the cage, the heater is alternately turned on and the fan is turned off or vice versa. The rat can thus regulate the temperature in the cage.

In the Pavlovian method, the response strictly follows the stimulus, and unconditional reinforcement is associated with the conditioned stimulus due to the formation of the conditioned reflex connection. When instrumental conditioning is initially produced response (movement), which is reinforced without a conditioned signal. The need for reinforcement encourages the animal to react to a certain pedal, it adjusts its behavior in accordance with the perception of the pedal. It is this perception that serves as a conditioned stimulus, since the action by the pedal leads to nutritional reinforcement (a biologically significant result). If such a temporary connection is not established, the pedal has no signal value for the animal.

When developing reflexes according to Pavlov's method, the initial phase of the behavioral act is taken into account - the orientation phase of the animal. The animal learns under what external conditions, when it must produce a certain movement, i.e. it is oriented in time. In addition, the animal must orient in space: find the pedal, learn how to use it. All these moments are not taken into account in instrumental conditioning.

Method I.P. Pavlova allows you to qualitatively analyze the orientation of the animal components of the environment. However, when studying learning processes, one cannot limit oneself to this method only, because the development of skills is not identical to the development of classical conditioned reflexes.

Training is one form of animal skill development. In contrast to the instrumental development of skills, when an animal has the maximum opportunity to show independence, during training, strict control over the formation of skills is exercised. An animal is no longer assigned the task of finding its own way of action to achieve a result — on the contrary, during regular training, undesirable actions are eliminated, and the required movements are reinforced. The result of the training are complex and durable motor reactions that are performed by the animal in response to the command of the person. Reinforcement during training can be either negative (a painful effect due to a wrong action) or positive (food reinforcement). A mixed method can also be used in which wrong actions are punished, and correct ones are encouraged. The use of training in the study of the skills of an animal is determined by the clarity of the conditions in which it is placed, as well as by the possibility of the most accurate accounting of the signals given by the trainer.

Training is a complex process, it is not a chain of conditioned reflexes. The greatest difficulty faced by the researcher lies in the fact that the animal understands what the trainer expects from him. The expected actions should be species-specific for the animal, but in these conditions they may be unusual for him.

The theory of training developed by the Soviet zoopsychologist MA Gerd. The process of training was proposed to be divided into three stages: pushing, testing and consolidation.

At the stage of pushing the trainer must force the animal to perform the required system of actions. An example would be a famous circus number in which an animal (for example, a dog) rolls a carpet. When training a dog, a person demonstrates a piece of delicacy to her, standing near a rolled-up carpet, but does not allow him to grab food. The animal becomes agitated, starts bouncing animatedly on the spot, barking, sorting with its front paws. In this case, any random touches of the dog to the carpet are supported by small pieces of treat. Gradually, the dog will specifically begin to touch the paws of the carpet, in order to get reinforcements, it will form the movements necessary for the number of paws on the carpet. Subsequently, all these movements are carefully practiced, their orientation is specified.

At this stage, the training can act in three ways. The first method is the method of direct pushing, when the trainer forces the animal to move behind an attractive object (for example, food). The second method is indirect pushing: the trainer provokes movements that are not aimed at the bait, but caused by the excitation of the animal. This method forms the manipulative actions of the extremities: the transfer of objects, grip, pushing and others. With the complex pushing method, an animal first develops a skill, and then in another situation it is forced to apply this skill differently. For example, in the beginning, the fur seal is trained to throw the ball in the trainer's hands. Then the trainer hides his hands behind his back for a few moments. Kotik is forced to hold the ball on his nose, because he receives reinforcement only after the ball falls into the hands of the trainer. Gradually, the duration of the sealship of the ball increases, and as a result a circus number is created with balancing the ball.

At the second stage of training, the stage of working out, the trainer focuses his efforts on getting rid of the extra movements of the animal that accompany the necessary actions. This is especially true of all possible orienting reactions caused by a new situation for the animal. When unnecessary movements are eliminated, the primary system of actions is “ground off”, the necessary movements are made sufficiently clear and long, a convenient alarm system is selected to control the actions of the animal. In this case, the reaction to food reinforcement should be replaced by a reaction to the trainer's signal (for example, the sound of a whistle).

At the stage of testing also apply pushing techniques. For example, the correct posture of an animal standing not on its hind legs can be fixed by raising the lure over its head. With the help of these techniques is the development of artificial alarm.

The last stage of training is the stage of consolidation. At this stage, efforts are focused on consolidating acquired skills, and also ensure their reproduction in response to the signal. Pushing here is no longer applicable. Food reinforcement is not made after each skill, but at the end of the whole complex of actions. As a result, skills take the form of a stereotypical reaction, when the end of one action is the beginning of the second, and so on.

Thus, the artificial development of skills in animals is a very complex process, although it is indisputably inferior in terms of the degree of multiplicity to the formation of skills in animals in natural conditions.