Animal Behavior I Flashcards
Both original sciences of behavior
Darwin
Comparative psychologist, stressed parsimony
Morgan
Comparative who studied animals in puzzle boxes
Thorndike
Most influential, outspoken philosophical behaviorist
Skinner
Comparative, Attachment in monkeys, Wisconsin General test apparatus
Harlow
Behavioral Endocrinology founder
Beach
Three founders of Ethology
Von Frisch, Lorenz, Tinbergen
Author of the selfish gene
Dawkins
EthologyPRINCIPLES
Emphasizes instinct over learning, studies a wide range of species,
Comparative PsychologyIDEALS…
Experiments over observations, lab over field, proximate rather than ultimate questions
Morgan’s Canon
Never assume higher cognitive function as the cause of a behavior if it can be explained by something lower on the psychological scale
(Reflex,innate,conditioning)
Three models of what scientists do?
Induction, Deduction, Hypothetico-deduction
Who proposed hypothetico-deduction
Popper
Induction is….
Making unbiased observations, and basing laws off the observations
Induction problems
No such thing as unbiased, laws don’t explain how anything works
Deduction
Make observations, derive creative explanation
Deduction issue
There are many ways to creatively explain stuff
Hypothetico-deduction
its just the scientific method
Four ways to test hypotheses
Experiment, quantitative observation, comparative studies, models
Historical sciences used which hypothesis testing method
Comparative studies
Experiment pros
- cause and effect certainty
- simplifies situation
Experiment cons
Oversimplification of natural situations
Quantitative observation pros
Accounts for natural complexities while still being quantitative
Observation cons
correlation rather than causes
Models pros
Allows for predictions of specific situations
Models cons
not exact fit of problem, details need refining
Optimality
Costs and benefits of behavior
Game theory
social situations: best tactic depends on what others are doing
Comparative pros
Allows for separation of historical effects and current effects.
Tinbergens four questions
Causation, Development, Evolution, Function
Divide Tinberg’s questions into the Mayr’s scheme
Causation and Development are proximate and Evolution and function are ultimate
Yellow fly experiment ran by…
Bastock
Rat Maze ran by…
Cooper and Zubek
Variable environment, heritability is
lower
Stable environment, heritability is
higher
Less variable gene pool, heritability is
lower
Racism IQ fallacies
- IQ heritability is high and constant
- IQ is mostly determined by genes
- Therefore, different groups have different IQs from different genes
Uncapping
uu
Removing
rr
