Animal Behavior One (Final Exam)

Question 1

What is comparative psychology?

Answer 1

the study of animals on a few species in a lab setting

Question 2

What is ethology, and who are the founders?

Answer 2

Ethology is the study of animals in their natural habitat.

Founded by Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen

Question 3

What is behavioral ecology?

Answer 3

study of animals that focuses on individual behavior that maximizes reproduction and evolutionary success and studies mate choice, foraging, and parental investment

Question 4

What is sociobiology?

Answer 4

It is the ethological study of social behavior

Question 5

Name Tinbergen’s first question and provide example.

Answer 5

1. Mechanism (causation): What stimulus elicits the behavior?

Example: A dog has to go to the bathroom so she barks at its owner

Question 6

Name Tinbergen’s second question, and provide an example.

Answer 6

2. Ontogeny (development): How does a certain trait develop in individuals?

During the course of its young life, the dogs best friend (man or women) conditioned/trained the dog to bark when he had to go outside

Question 7

Name Tinbergen’s third question and provide an example.

Answer 7

3. Function (adaptation): How does this certain behavior help the organism survive and reproduce?

Barking towards the owner communicates that the dog needs to get outside and empty his bowels, otherwise he will hold it in as he was trained

Question 8

Name Tinbergen’s fourth question and provide an example.

Answer 8

4. Phylogeny (evolution): How did past generations of the organism contribute to the development of the behavior?

As dogs became more and more domesticated, they learned to communicate with humans through barking instead of only rarely using barking for communication as wolves do

Question 9

Which questions are proximate causation? (Does this concern how or why?)

Answer 9

The first two, and it concerns HOW

Question 10

Which questions are ultimate causation?
(Does this concern how or why?)

Answer 10

The last two and it concerns WHY

Question 11

What are stereotypical behaviors?

Answer 11

When innate (inherited) behaviors occur in predictable sequences

They show low variation and it is the same time and time again

Question 12

What is sign stimulus?

Answer 12

When an animal responded to just one specific aspect of the stimulus

Question 13

What is a good example of sign stimulus?

Answer 13

The red robin and the red belly

Question 14

Describe the transmission of innate behaviors for most animals.

Answer 14

Hereditary transmission of most innate behaviors is complex with many interacting genes

Question 15

What is one exception to the complexity of heritable innate behaviors?

Answer 15

Honey bee hygiene

Question 16

What are the two components to hygienic behavior in bees?

Answer 16

1. Removal of cell caps
2. Removal of larvae

Question 17

In most circumstances, how does transmission of innate behaviors happen?

Answer 17

They don’t show simple segregation like the bees, but instead show an intermediate behavior.

Question 18

How are innate or inherited behaviors different from learned behaviors?

Answer 18

Exactly like you would think, innate behaviors are “caused” by gene expression, independent of learning

Question 19

What are innate behaviors usually important for?

Answer 19

They are usually important for survival

Question 20

What is learned behavior?

Answer 20

A behavior that is modified through experience

Question 21

Give an example of habituation.

Answer 21

When researchers prodded the siphon of a marine snail it withdrew its gills for protection, but after continuous prodding, it eventually ignored it

Question 22

Give an example of imprinting

Answer 22

When a newly born duckling follows its mother, it imposes (imprints) a stable behavior by exposure to a certain stimulus during a critical point in development (critical window)

If the duckling ever gets separated from its mother it will follow the next big object