Animal behavior Flashcards
What are 3 theories that we no longer use to describe behavior
Nature v nurture
Reinforcement theory
Universality
What study originally “proved” that nurture, or learned behavior was the explanation
Baby albert and the scary bunnies
What is an example of an explanation for nature determining behavior
Eugenics
What is the reinforcement theory
Teaching a behavior through reinforcement
Define Ethology
Study of animal behavior
Define Behavior
A nervous system’s response to a stimuli then carried out by muscle or hormonal systems. (Not necessarily an action)
Define Proximate causation
Explanations that seek to describe “how” and “what”.
What stimuli leads to what behavior.
Define Ultimate causation
Seeking to describe “why” a behavior happened based on evolutionary significance
Define Fixed action pattern
Behaviors an animal is born with.
Examples of fixed action pattern
babies grasping
Stickleback fish protecting
monkeys screaming by predator
Cukoos bumping eggs out of the nest.
How can fixed action patterns be shaped
Through behavior and experience
What “words” are monkeys born with?
Eagle, Leopard and snake
Define Taxis
Directional movement toward a stimuli
Why can’t volvox experience taxis even though they move toward light?
They don’t have a nervous system
Define kinesis
Change in random movement because of a stimuli
Example of Kinesis
Pill bug stoping in shade.
Salmon swimming up stream to their spawning sport is an example of taxis or kinesis
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.
Define Migration
Regular, long distance seasonal travel
What types of behavior fall under innate
Fixed action pattern
Taxis
kinesis
migration
What types of behavior fall under learned
Habituation
imprinting
Spatial learning
Associative learning (Classical conditioning, Operant conditioning, Cognition)
What is habituation?
Getting used to a stimuli so that it no longer evokes a response.
Scare crow.
Define imprinting
A critical learning period where only certain things can be learned.
(birds and language for people)
Define spatial learning
Orienting oneself by using land marks creating a cognitive map.
(wasps with nest and landmarks move pine cones)
Define associative learning
Associating stimuli with a specific behavior; creating patterns
What types of learning are represented under associative learning
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
cognition
Define Classical conditioning
When a stimuli evokes a behavior.
Bell rings, dog salivates
Define Operant conditioning
When a behavior evokes a stimuli.
dog sits and gets a treat
What comes first in classical conditioning, the stimuli or the behavior?
Stimuli
What comes first in operant conditioning, the stimuli or the behavior?
The behavior
Why are humans so inclined to create patterns related to behaviors
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.)
Define superstition
Associating a behavior with a pattern that doesn’t exist.
pushing the elevator button, button does nothing
What is cognition?
Awareness, reasoning, and judgment.
using tools
What is generalization
Using abstract reasoning to group stimuli
How is behavior associated with nature
Behavior influence fitness and thus is present in genotype
What is observed at a genetic level when behavior is being observed
Some genes are down regulated and some are up regulated
How do some genes have a different “history” than other genes
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.
How does the cuckoo know to push eggs out of the nest upon hatching,
Fixed action patern
How does the cuckoo know to return to the nest it was born in?
Imprinting
Why do birds feed cuckoos that hatch in their nest,
Fixed action patern
How do different “races” of cuckoo lay eggs with different phenotypes
The gene for egg coloration is passed down from the mothers DNA
What would happen if a meadow pipit cuckoo was hatched in a robins nest
It would return to the robins nest because of imprinting.
How can male cuckoos breed with all female cuckoos and we can still observe different egg colors
Egg color gene is passed down by females
Why aren’t the cuckoos that lay robin eggs have a very good “match” for egg color?
Cuckoos haven’t been laying eggs in robins nests for very long, so natural selection hasn’t had time to perfect the robin egg.
Robin cuckoos egg evolution and robins learning that cuckoo eggs are foreign is an example of what?
Arms race for fitness.
