Stimulus and Response Theory - Lecture Slides, Slides of Psychology

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Stimulus and Response

Why animals and plants do what they do

OR

A fancy way of saying cause and effect in

the animal world.

Catalyst

1. Describe a situation in which you were immediately scared and/or reacted quickly to something. Write at least 1 paragraph with 4 sentences describing your experience.
2. Take out your journals and your colors.

What is a stimulus?

Stimulus: any change in an organism’s environment that causes the organism to react. It is a fancy way of saying “cause”.

Stimulus – singular Stimuli – plural

Example: An animal is cold so it moves into the sun.

(Add this word to your journal)

What is a response?

Response: how the organism reacts

to a stimulus and results in a change in behavior. (It is a fancy way of saying “effect”.)

Example: Getting a drink when you are thirsty.

(Add this word to your journal)

Plants also respond to their

environment. When a plant grows

towards the sun we call this

phototropism.

Think – Pair - Share

Turn to your partner and

share two other stimuli

and their responses.

External Stimulus

External stimulus: a stimulus that comes from outside an organism.

Examples:

1. You feel cold so you put on a jacket.
2. A snake lunges at a rabbit so it runs away.
3. A dog feels hot so it goes to lay in the shade.

Add this word to your journal.

Internal Stimulus

Internal stimulus: a stimulus that

comes from inside an organism.

Examples:

1. You feel hungry so you eat some food.
2. A cat feels thirsty so it drinks water.
3. A dog feels hot so it goes to lay in the shade.

Add this word to your journal.

Animals can respond to stimuli in

two ways:

1. In a way that they learned. We call this

learned behavior.

OR

2. In a way that they were just born

knowing how to do. We call this instinct.

Learned behavior: a

response to a stimulus

that an animal was

taught.

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Teaching an animal a trick

Training a dog

Instinct: an animal’s natural

reaction to a stimulus. It is an automatic reaction that the animal was not taught to do.

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Animals natural instinct is to run

away from danger. We call this the

need for safety.