Imprinting is a psychological term which refers to the process of learning occurring for a short period of time in the early life of a young animal.
Spatial learning refers to the process of encoding and memorising features of an environment. Through this process, animals can navigate through this space and locate important stimuli (such as food).
Conditioning is a general psychological term referring to the increase or decrease of a behavioural response as a result of reinforcement. Conditioning can be either classical or operant.
Cognition is again a general term which describes the process of accumulating knowledge from the environment through thought, experiences and the senses.
1. "A hawk raised by humans will not mate with another hawk."
This is an example of imprinting. The hawk was raised by humans and not by hawks, therefore, the young newborn hawk could not imprint with its mother. A crucial period of its development was not spent around hawks and he could not have learnt the sets of behaviours associated with hawks. In this case, the hawk does not mate with another hawk because he cannot visually identify with other members of its species and as a consequence, it cannot choose appropriate mates.
2. "A rat can navigate a maze using landmarks."
This is an example of spatial learning. As described above, spatial learning is the process of familiarizing with a specific environment and gaining the ability to navigate through it. In this case, the rat has memorized specific landmarks of this environment (a maze) and has learned to navigate through the maze.
3. "An octopus can navigate in a new tank after a 24-hour learning period."
This is an example of spatial learning. Similarly, in this case, the octopus has spent 24 hours of familiarizing with the new tank and learning the tank's features and characteristics. After this learning period, he acquired all the necessary spatial information needed to navigate the new tank.
4. "A pigeon is trained to push a lever for a food reward."
This is an example of conditioning. The basis behind any form of conditioning is that the animal needs to learn to associate two events. In this case, the pigeon has learned to associate the lever with food. The pigeon's behavior of pushing a lever is rewarded by gaining food, an act which reinforces the animal's behavioral act. By reinforcing this specific behavior, the animal learns that this behavior is appropriate and performs it more frequently.
5. "A dolphin associates the sound of a clicker with a food reward."
This is an example of conditioning. Similarly, this is again an example of operant conditioning. Everytime the trainer pressed the clicker, he provided food to the dolphin. The dolphin learned to associate these two stimuli and is expecting food everytime it hears the clicker.
6. "A chimpanzee teaches sign language to another chimpanzee".
This is an example of cognition. Primates and a limited number of non-primate species (such as rats) have proved to be able to achieve more complex and advanced learning than conditioning. Cognitive learning belongs to this category. The transfer of knowledge from one chimpanzee to the other is an example of cognitive learning.
7. "Grey squirrels can relocate buried food".
This is an example of spatial learning. Again, grey squirrels can learn and memorize their living environment, meaning that they are capable of aquiring spatial knowledge. Through this process they can use this spatial information to relocate previously buried food that they have stored.
8. "A captive orca discovers how to use fish to lure seagulls".
This is an example of cognition. Similarly to primates, other mammals, such as dolphins, have proved to be capable of sophisticated cognitive learning. Orca whales belong to the oceanic dolphin family. In this example, the captive orca learned to use fish as a tool to obtain something more valueable to them, seagulls.
9. "Capuchins can modify a stick to obtain candy".
This is an example of cognition. Capuchins are monkeys and as primates they can perform highly advanced cognitive processes. Through cognitive learning, capuchins have realized that they can use a tool to obtain candy. In order for the tool to be effective, they have learned to modify a stick (a material abundant in their environment) and obtain what they want.
10. "Geese will follow the first moving stimulus they see after hatching".
This is an example of imprinting. This behavior of the geese, to follow the first moving stimulus they see, is one of the most important examples of imprinting. Young geese, when hatching in nature, they imprint on the first adult that they see, which is normally their mother. This imprinting ensures that when the young geese sees its mother, it will follow and imitate her.
