What happens in the Breland Effect when a strong instinct is present?

• A. The conditioned behavior drifts toward the instinctive behavior, undermining the conditioned response.
• B. The conditioned behavior becomes stronger and overrides instinct.
• C. The dog completely forgets the conditioned behavior.
• D. The instinctive behavior ceases to appear.

Answer: (A)

When a strong instinct is part of the situation, learned behaviors can be pulled off course by innate tendencies. This phenomenon, known as the Breland Effect or instinctive drift, shows that instinctual actions can take over the expressed behavior, undermining the conditioned response. For example, a pig trained to drop coins into a bank may start rooting and manipulating the coins as it would with food, causing the trained action to fade. Instincts are powerful and can be more rewarding in the animal’s natural behavior, so the conditioned behavior drifts toward the instinctive pattern rather than persisting. That’s why the best choice describes the conditioned behavior drifting toward the instinctive behavior, undermining the conditioned response.