Animal behavior

Question 1

What are 3 theories that we no longer use to describe behavior

Answer 1

Nature v nurture
Reinforcement theory
Universality

Question 2

What study originally “proved” that nurture, or learned behavior was the explanation

Answer 2

Baby albert and the scary bunnies

Question 3

What is an example of an explanation for nature determining behavior

Answer 3

Eugenics

Question 4

What is the reinforcement theory

Answer 4

Teaching a behavior through reinforcement

Question 5

Define Ethology

Answer 5

Study of animal behavior

Question 6

Define Behavior

Answer 6

A nervous system’s response to a stimuli then carried out by muscle or hormonal systems. (Not necessarily an action)

Question 7

Define Proximate causation

Answer 7

Explanations that seek to describe “how” and “what”.

What stimuli leads to what behavior.

Question 8

Define Ultimate causation

Answer 8

Seeking to describe “why” a behavior happened based on evolutionary significance

Question 9

Define Fixed action pattern

Answer 9

Behaviors an animal is born with.

Question 10

Examples of fixed action pattern

Answer 10

babies grasping
Stickleback fish protecting
monkeys screaming by predator
Cukoos bumping eggs out of the nest.

Question 11

How can fixed action patterns be shaped

Answer 11

Through behavior and experience

Question 12

What “words” are monkeys born with?

Answer 12

Eagle, Leopard and snake

Question 13

Define Taxis

Answer 13

Directional movement toward a stimuli

Question 14

Why can’t volvox experience taxis even though they move toward light?

Answer 14

They don’t have a nervous system

Question 15

Define kinesis

Answer 15

Change in random movement because of a stimuli

Question 16

Example of Kinesis

Answer 16

Pill bug stoping in shade.

Question 17

Salmon swimming up stream to their spawning sport is an example of taxis or kinesis

Answer 17

Taxis.

In order for it to be kinesis they would have to swim up every river until they found the spot they are looking for.

Question 18

Define Migration

Answer 18

Regular, long distance seasonal travel

Question 19

What types of behavior fall under innate

Answer 19

Fixed action pattern
Taxis
kinesis
migration

Question 20

What types of behavior fall under learned

Answer 20

Habituation
imprinting
Spatial learning
Associative learning (Classical conditioning, Operant conditioning, Cognition)

Question 21

What is habituation?

Answer 21

Getting used to a stimuli so that it no longer evokes a response.
Scare crow.

Question 22

Define imprinting

Answer 22

A critical learning period where only certain things can be learned.
(birds and language for people)

Question 23

Define spatial learning

Answer 23

Orienting oneself by using land marks creating a cognitive map.
(wasps with nest and landmarks move pine cones)

Question 24

Define associative learning

Answer 24

Associating stimuli with a specific behavior; creating patterns

Question 25

What types of learning are represented under associative learning

Answer 25

Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
cognition

Question 26

Define Classical conditioning

Answer 26

When a stimuli evokes a behavior.

Bell rings, dog salivates

Question 27

Define Operant conditioning

Answer 27

When a behavior evokes a stimuli.

dog sits and gets a treat

Question 28

What comes first in classical conditioning, the stimuli or the behavior?

Answer 28

Stimuli

Question 29

What comes first in operant conditioning, the stimuli or the behavior?

Answer 29

The behavior

Question 30

Why are humans so inclined to create patterns related to behaviors

Answer 30

Because the more successful patterns are, the more they aid in fitness.
(Thinking you see a tiger and becoming safe vs seeing a tiger and doing nothing.)

Question 31

Define superstition

Answer 31

Associating a behavior with a pattern that doesn’t exist.

pushing the elevator button, button does nothing

Question 32

What is cognition?

Answer 32

Awareness, reasoning, and judgment.

using tools

Question 33

What is generalization

Answer 33

Using abstract reasoning to group stimuli

Question 34

How is behavior associated with nature

Answer 34

Behavior influence fitness and thus is present in genotype

Question 35

What is observed at a genetic level when behavior is being observed

Answer 35

Some genes are down regulated and some are up regulated

Question 36

How do some genes have a different “history” than other genes

Answer 36

When a gene is sex dependent, passed down from the father or the mother, then it will have a different history than the rest of the genome.

Question 37

How does the cuckoo know to push eggs out of the nest upon hatching,

Answer 37

Fixed action patern

Question 38

How does the cuckoo know to return to the nest it was born in?

Answer 38

Imprinting

Question 39

Why do birds feed cuckoos that hatch in their nest,

Answer 39

Fixed action patern

Question 40

How do different “races” of cuckoo lay eggs with different phenotypes

Answer 40

The gene for egg coloration is passed down from the mothers DNA

Question 41

What would happen if a meadow pipit cuckoo was hatched in a robins nest

Answer 41

It would return to the robins nest because of imprinting.

Question 42

How can male cuckoos breed with all female cuckoos and we can still observe different egg colors

Answer 42

Egg color gene is passed down by females

Question 43

Why aren’t the cuckoos that lay robin eggs have a very good “match” for egg color?

Answer 43

Cuckoos haven’t been laying eggs in robins nests for very long, so natural selection hasn’t had time to perfect the robin egg.

Question 44

Robin cuckoos egg evolution and robins learning that cuckoo eggs are foreign is an example of what?

Answer 44

Arms race for fitness.