Instinctive, conditioned and learned behavior

What are the differences between instinctive, conditioned and learned behavior. Are there other behavior categories that we are missing. Is it black and white or is there a gray area?

[jlong]

Anyone brave enough to touch this one???

jlong

I will.. I will...

Examples:

Instinctive - A joey kangaroo is born and it crawls to the mothers pouch

conditioned - a dog is shocked if it goes past a certian point in its yard because of a shock collar.

learned behavior - A human heres that the Hughes River Company doesnt do what they say they are going to do. Then they dont buy hughes river baits. hahahahahahaha

That being said.. The difference is reasoning. The question is, What level can a muskie reason? Or, can it reason? I dont think so. I think that all muskie behavior is written in there genetic code. I think that muskies are totally dependant on mother nature. They dont controll any of their behavior. All strikes and movement are instictive.

This is the kind of topic that can keep guys up all night drinking gut-rot whiskey and talking smarter as the night goes on.

I have no idea how much instinct plays a part in why or why not a muskie will strike or won't.

I don't think anyone can argue that the more pressure a lake gets, the harder it is to connect with fish, especially big one. Sometimes you have to fish at night, etc.

Is this learned behavior, that in a "uneducated" population of fish will hit anything that the first lucky fishermen throws at them, then years later the fish are more prone to follow than hit, of just not be seen?

Case in point, Lake Vermillion. The first few year were a hey-day, now you gotta be there when the bite is hot, and the conditions right.

Anyway, it's a puzzle that makes these fish very interesting.

Some say muskies are stupid and cannot learn or reason. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't.

JS

John,

The more fishing presure a lake recives the more fish are dying per hour, day or year. I would also imagine that Darwinism plays a role. In Lamens terms, the stupid ones get caught (die) first leaving the smart ones.

Take webster for instance. That lake has more fishing pressure than any other lake I know. Everytime someone comes back from there you here about them seeing 10,20,30 fish. That will change when the number of fish per acre goes down, not before. Darwinism cant take place because they are not reproducing.

I agree and disagree with you mutant. (hope I remebered your name correctly). Fish are going to die, and in some lakes that surely could make a difference.

The guys I know that are fishing Vermillion now, that did 5 years and longer ago, are seeing more big fish then they used to, as the fish are growing up.

They have a harder time getting them to bite with any consistency, meaning you need all the planets in a line etc.

As I fish "new" MN lakes which are getting more and more pressure every year, the fish are harder to get to bite, I don't see less, I saw more big fish this year than in the previous 2 or 3 on my local lake, but they are much more "boat shy" now.

JS

[nxtwrldrcd]

If I can condition my goldfish to come to the top of the tank for food when I tap the glass. I’m sure muskies can be conditioned too.

John,

Big fish have always been very hard to catch. "Harder to catch" is hard to define and determine.

Lets say that a muskie has been put through massaive amounts of stress. Then because of stress levels that triggers a instinctive behavior to become more intune with its surroundings(if it lives). It is still action-reaction not conditioned behavior. Its senses just became more acute.

Try to think about how in-tune a muskie, or any cold blooded creature, must be to the enviroment. It is unimaginable.

NXTWRLD,

Feeding behavior is tricky. I think that sound will trigger an instinctive searching behavior. Maybe the sound triggers a mechanism in the fish to be more intuned to that type of sound wave. After a while that fishes sense for that kind of sound wave is more acute.

What do you think about those apples? Or did I lose ya?

[nxtwrldrcd]

“Sound waves in a fish tank = instinctive searching” I think your full of #####. Jlong wouldn’t even buy into that one. Your second paragraph in #7 couldn’t be a better definition of conditioning. Your apples are rotten and you’re drunk on the fermentation.