Animal trainers Keller and Marian Breland tried to train a raccoon to pick up two coins and deposit them in a metal box. However, instead of dropping the coins in the box, the raccoon would rub the coins together, much as raccoons do with their food in the wild. This tendency of the raccoon to revert to its natural behavior patterns is termed:

Question

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Instinctive drift is the tendency of animals to revert to their instinctual behavior patterns during training, rather than learning the new task that is being taught to them. In this case, the raccoon's natural tendency to rub objects together overrode its ability to learn the new task of depositing coins in a box.

Animal Trainers Keller and Marian Breland Tried to Train a Raccoon