Animal Behavior Flashcards
What two things influence an animal’s behavior?
genes (nature) and the environment (nurture)
how do genes affect an animal’s behavior?
innate behaviors that are developmentally fixed
how does the environment affect an animal’s behavior?
learned behaviors usually learned from parents or trial and error
what is the study of animal behavior called? break it down
ethology; “etho”= character, “ology”= study of
4 reasons why any behavior evolved?
- made the organism fit the environment better
- made it more likely to survive
- pass on genes
- optimized organism’s Darwinian fitness
who made the demonstration of 3-spined stickleback fish?
Niko Tinbergen
what do male 3-spined sticklebacks do to fish invading their territories?
attacked the red underside of an intruder
what does the red underside serve as to the males?
a sign stimulus to attack
what is FAP? Give an example
It’s called a fixed-action pattern, it’s a sequence of innate behaviors linked to a simple stimulus. Sticklebacks attack anything with a red underbelly– even nonfishlike objects
what is foraging?
searching for food and feeding
what is optimal foraging? give an example
what an animal eats is based upon this: they weigh the costs and benefits of getting a meal. Bluegill sunfish feed on Daphnia, and will choose the smaller closer one instead of the further bigger one.
What is habituation? what is it known as? give an example
a type of learning that involves a loss of responsiveness to a stimulus. Hydras eventually stop contracting when touched repeatedly. it’s also known as the ‘cry wolf’ effect
what is another type of long-lasting learning at a specific stage in life to a particular individual and is limited to a time range? what is that time range called?
Imprinting; sensitive/critical period
who became famous for his imprinting experiment? with what?
Konrad Lorenz; grayleg geese
what did lorenz discover?
if geese spent time with a human for the first hours of their lives, they will follow that person and will show no sign of recognizing the adults of their species
what does “operation migration” do to help migrate whooping cranes?
humans dressed in crane suits
how do salmons know how to get back to their freshwater stream after migrating to salt water?
the chemical scent of the stream is imprinted on them
how do nocturnal animals migrate over the long distance? diurnal animals? what happens if the weather’s cloudy?
North star; sun; use the Earth’s magnetic field as they can see it as they either have magnetite in their heads or have photoreceptors in their eyes
what is magnetite?
a magnetic iron material
what is using photoreceptors in the eyes to see the magnetic field called?
magnetoreception
what are the two types of movement? define both
taxis- a directed movement toward or away a stimulus
kinesis- a change in activity rate in response to a stimulus/nondirectional/random movement
what learning is the ability to learn to associate one environmental feature with another?
associative learning
what two types of associative learning are there?
classical conditioning and operant conditioning
what is classical conditioning?
occurs when an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a particular outcome
who is famous for classical conditioning? what did he do?
physiologist Ivan Paulov. made dogs associate a bells ring to getting meat power, resulting in them salivating at the sound of a bell
what is operant conditioning?`
it’s when an animal learns to associate their own behaviors with rewards/punishments and continues/stops that behavior
who is famous for conducting operant conditioning? what did he do?
BF Skinner; he placed birds or rats in a Skinner box. in the box, rats found a lever and were rewarded with pieces of food. soon the rats associated pushing the lever with getting a treat.
what is cognition/insight?
performing higher level reasoning/ problem solving
