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This term is often associated with [[Konrad Lorenz]], who is the founder of the concept.<ref name=":03"/> Lorenz identified six characteristics of fixed action patterns.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |title=Studying animal behavior : autobiographies of the founders |date=1989 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |others=Dewsbury, Donald A. |isbn=0226144100 |___location=Chicago |oclc=19670401}}</ref> These characteristics state that fixed action patterns are stereotyped, complex, species-characteristic, released, triggered, and independent of experience.<ref name=":22" />
Fixed action patterns have been observed in many species, but most notably in fish and birds.<ref name=":03"/><ref name=":15" /> Classic studies by Konrad Lorenz and [[Nikolaas Tinbergen|Niko Tinbergen]] involve male stickleback mating behavior and greylag goose egg-retrieval behavior.<ref name=":82">{{cite journal |last1=Tinbergen |first1=N. |title=The Curious Behavior of the Stickleback |journal=Scientific American |date=1952 |volume=187 |issue=6 |pages=22–27 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1252-22 |jstor=24944080 |bibcode=1952SciAm.187f..22T }}</ref><ref name=":92">{{cite
Fixed action patterns have been shown to be evolutionarily advantageous, as they increase both fitness and speed.<ref name=":112">{{Cite web |url=https://www.jove.com/science-education/10919/fixed-action-patterns |title=Fixed Action Patterns {{!}} Protocol |website=www.jove.com |access-date=2019-10-24}}</ref> However, as a result of their predictability, they may also be used as a means of exploitation. An example of this exploitation would be brood parasitism.<ref name=":132">{{cite journal |last1=Peer |first1=Brian D. |last2=Robinson |first2=Scott K. |last3=Herkert |first3=James R. |title=Egg Rejection by Cowbird Hosts in Grasslands |journal=The Auk |date=October 2000 |volume=117 |issue=4 |pages=892–901 |doi=10.1093/auk/117.4.892 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
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The sight of the egg outside of the nest serves as the stimulus in this particular instance because it is only after the recognition of the egg's displacement that the fixed action pattern occurs.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{cite web |last1=OpenStax College Biology |title=Behavioral Biology: Proximate and Ultimate Causes of Behavior |url=https://cnx.org/contents/GFy_h8cu@10.53:rZudN6XP@2/Introduction |website=cnx.org |date=21 October 2016 |access-date=20 November 2018}}</ref>
The manipulation of the sign stimulus through a series of experiments can allow scientists to understand what specific component of the stimulus is responsible for the innate behavioral sequence. If the egg were to be picked up and taken away after it is displaced from the nest, the goose still exhibits the same head moving motion even though there is no egg present.<ref name=":0" /> This was put to the test by using objects such as beer cans, and baseballs. Experimenters found that the stimulus merely had to be an object that was large enough in size, convex enough in shape, and comfortable enough for the goose to lay its neck around the edges of the object.<ref name=":0" />
These features that the stimulus has to obtain in order to trigger a resulting FAP were then given the official term of Sign Stimuli. Scientists came to the realization that there must be an innate deciphering method that the goose goes through in order to determine a suitable sign stimulus. This was defined as an [[innate releasing mechanism]] (IRM). The goose's IRM when put to the test in the natural world not being manipulated by scientific experimentation is almost always efficient in getting the desired item of an egg back into the nest.<ref name=":0" />
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== Evolutionary disadvantages ==
[[File:Reed_warbler_cuckoo.jpg|thumb|Brood parasites, such as the [[European cuckoo|cuckoo]], provide a supernormal stimulus to the parenting species, in this case a [[common reed warbler]].]]
Fixed action patterns are predictable, as they are invariable, and therefore can lead to exploitation.{{fact|date=November 2024}} Some species have evolved to exploit the fixed action patterns of other species by [[mimicry]] of their sign stimuli.<ref name=":132"/> Replicating the releaser required to trigger a fixed action pattern is known as ''code-breaking''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-ecology-of-avian-brood-parasitism-14724491/|title=The Ecology of Avian Brood Parasitism {{!}} Learn Science at Scitable|website=www.nature.com|access-date=2019-10-24}}</ref> A well-known example of this is [[brood parasitism]], where one species will lay its eggs in the nest of another species, which will then parent its young.<ref name=":132"/> A young [[North American cowbird]], for example, provides a supernormal stimulus to its foster parent, which will cause it to forage rapidly to satisfy the larger bird's demands.<ref name=":5">Wickler, W. (1968) ''Mimicry in Plants and Animals.'' World University Library, London.</ref> A nestling will provide higher levels of stimulus with noisier, more energetic behavior, communicating its urgent need for food.<ref name=":5" /> Parents in this situation have to work harder to provide food, otherwise their own offspring are likely to die of [[starvation]].<ref name=":5" />
=== Brood parasitism ===
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