Animal behaviour Flashcards
What is the correct temporal sequence?
Research question, research hypothesis, prediction, test
What do ethograms allow a researcher to calculate?
A time budget
What is conspecific attraction?
attraction to individuals of the same species
What is the free distribution model?
What approaches would provide the strongest evidence of the hypothesis that calling by male crickets functions to attract females?
An experiment that tests female responses to playback of male calls
What observation allows a researcher to conclude that genetic factors may have strong effects on behaviour?
Genetically similar individuals behave the same in different environments
Animals differing genetically often behave in contrasting ways in different environments. We here talk about:
Gene-environment effects
The terms “Nature and nurture” refer to the following
The combined influence of genes and the environment
What distinguishes local enhancement (LE) from public information (PI) with respect to learning about food patches?
LE involves learning about the location, while PI involves learning about quality
An animal is trained to associate an initially irrelevant stimulus with a relevant stimulus (e.g. a reward). This form of learning is termed:
classical conditioning
What is NOT associated with evidence for behavioural
traditions?
What are 3 things that are?
Not: Insight learning
Are:
-Social learning
-Animal culture
-Tool use
When an animal over time responds less to a stimulus, this effect is an example of what form of learning?
Habituation
An animal is trained to perform an action by repeatedly giving it a reward when the action is performed. This is an example of
Operant conditioning
What is the difference between classical conditioning and operation conditioning?
ou observe variation in the visual signals that males use to attract females. What would be true if the signal is an accurate indicator of male quality?
The highest-quality males have the most elaborate form of the signal
Birdsong has been important in understanding female preferences for male signals. An experimental advantage has been that females “work to hear song” and have been shown in experimental setups to peck on keys to release a computer to play song. These kinds of preference tests are an example for:
Operant conditioning
What is NOT a condition that favours the evolution of signals that are accurate indicators of conditions?
What are 3 things that are?
Not: Signal production is frequency-dependent
Are:
-The signal is a function of body size, and large size is associated with quality
-The fitness interests of signaller and receiver are similar
-The signal cannot be faked
What are signals?
Have evolved specifically to transfer information
What are 3 truths about the optimal foraging theory OFT?
-Many OFT models assume fitness is a positive function of energy intake rate
-It assumes that natural selection has favoured feeding behaviours that maximize
fitness
-The behaviour predicted by OFT models is called the optimal behaviour
What is not something that is not true about OFT?
It assumes that animals have evolved optimal strategies when competing for food
What is involved in the foraging trade-off between the probability of being killed by a predator or dying of starvation?
vigilance
In some species animals perform an extended display to predators, despite a lack of physical or chemical defences. Why might they do this?
Pursuit deterrence
What is pursuit deterrence?
One of the optimal foraging models, the marginal value theorem, is used to determine:
how long to stay in a food patch
