What is the difference between instinct and learning

Basic bodily actions, such as chewing, swallowing or reacting to physical pain are instinctive as well. Flinching and closing the eyes are innate defensive behaviors in response to someone throwing a punch.

However, professional boxers and martial artists improve their responsiveness by training to react more quickly to such physical threats. Instincts and reflexes are innate behaviors—they occur naturally and do not involve learning. In contrast, learning is a change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience. There are three main types of learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.

Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative learning where associations are made between events that occur together. Observational learning is just as it sounds: learning by observing others. Compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning. How are they alike? How do they differ? What is your personal definition of learning? How do your ideas about learning compare with the definition of learning presented in this text?

What kinds of things have you learned through the process of classical conditioning? Operant conditioning? Observational learning? How did you learn them? Both classical and operant conditioning involve learning by association. In classical conditioning, responses are involuntary and automatic; however, responses are voluntary and learned in operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, the event that drives the behavior the stimulus comes before the behavior; in operant conditioning, the event that drives the behavior the consequence comes after the behavior.

Also, whereas classical conditioning involves an organism forming an association between an involuntary reflexive response and a stimulus, operant conditioning involves an organism forming an association between a voluntary behavior and a consequence. A reflex is a behavior that humans are born knowing how to do, such as sucking or blushing; these behaviors happen automatically in response to stimuli in the environment.

Learned behaviors are things that humans are not born knowing how to do, such as swimming and surfing. Click to see full answer. Regarding this, what is the difference between instinctive and learned behavior? Instinct , or innate behavior , is an action that is impulsive or immediate based on a particular trigger or circumstance.

Learned behavior is an action that someone learns or develops over time through observation, education, training or experience. Furthermore, is walking a learned behavior or an instinct? Walking is both an instinctive and a learned behavior!

In some animals, walking is instinctive. Even some facultative bipeds, like penguins, are able to walk without teaching. In humans, walking , like most of our behaviors , is learned.

In animal behaviour: Instinctive learning. An animal adjusts its behaviour based on experience—that is, it learns—when experience at one time provides information that will be useful at a later time. Viewed in this light, learning is seen as a tool for survival and reproduction because it helps an….

Instinct is innate, meaning that instinctive behaviors and responses are present and complete within the individual at birth. In such situations improvements in the creatures' ability to perform an innate behavior may seem to indicate that the animal is learning, when, in fact, another process is at work. Instinct also known as innate behavior is an action that occurs immediately on a trigger. On the contrary, learned behavior is an action that the person learns through observation, education or experience.

This is the key difference between instinct and learned behavior. This service is more advanced with JavaScript available. Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning Edition. Editors: Norbert M. Contents Search. Learning and Instinct.

Authors Authors and affiliations Michael Domjan. How to cite. Synonyms Learned versus innate.