Geneza zachowań instynktownych
Genesis of Instinctive Behavior

Summary/Abstract: Although the category of instinct is included in almost every discourse in which animal behavior is analyzed, a closer look at the phenomenon that creates its specificity shows its elusiveness. One gets the impression that something called instinctive behavior is simply not significantly different from other non-instinctive behaviors. Firstly, instinct understood as innate, pre-programmed behavior partially loses its features of automaticity and rigid schematicity when its features are compared with the features of other behaviors acquired through learning. Secondly, the genesis of the instinct, which is at least partly to be found in epigenetics and the mechanisms of individual development, shows that the differences between it and other behaviors not inherited genetically are not as large as may be assumed at first glance. Third, a promising explanation for the origin of instinctive behavior is the ecological theory originally formulated by Eleanor Gibson and James J. Gibson for perception, as it allows us to understand the role of environmental factors in the development of patterns of instinctive action.

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