| A | B |
|---|
| behavior | All of the acts an organism performs, as in, for example, seeking a suitable habitat, obtaining food, avoiding predators, and seeking a mate and reproducing |
| stimulus | Any internal or external change or signal that influences the activity of an organism or of part of an organism |
| response | single, specific reaction to stimulus |
| innate behavior | In ethology, a circuit within an animal's brain that is hypothesized to respond to a specific stimulus, setting in motion, or "releasing," the sequence of movements that constitute a fixed action pattern |
| learning | The process that leads to modification in individual behavior as the result of experience |
| habituation | A simple kind of learning involving a loss of sensitivity to unimportant stimuli, allowing an animal to conserve time and energy |
| classical conditioning | A type of associative learning; the association of a normally irrelevant stimulus with a fixed behavioral response |
| operant conditioning | A type of associative learning that directly affects behavior in a natural context; also called trial-and-error learning |
| insight learning | The ability of an animal to perform a correct or appropriate behavior on the first attempt in a situation with which it has had no prior experience |
| imprinting | A type of learned behavior with a significant innate component, acquired during a limited critical period |
| migration | periodic movement and return of animals from one place to another |
| circadian rhythm | A physiological cycle of about 24 hours, present in all eukaryotic organisms, that persists even in the absence of external cues |
| courtship | type of behavior in which an animal sends out stimili in order to attract a member of the opposite sex |
| territory | An area or space occupied and defended by an individual or a group; trespassers are attacked (and usually defeated); may be the site of breeding, nesting, food gathering, or any combination thereof |
| aggression | threatening behavior that one animal uses to gain control over another |
| communication | passing of information from one organism to another |
| language | system of communication that combines sounds, symbols, or gestures according to a set of rules about word order and meaning |
