Animal Midterm 2 Flashcards
What is the opposite of habituation
sensitization
What did BF Skinner say about society? What did he believe we could do with society?
BF Skinner said we could change society by nurturing perop;e a certain way into certain behaviours
Did BF Skinner like Chomsky’s view? Explain
No, they had opposite views, SKinner believed in nurturing behaviour and Chomsky believed behaviours were genetic
What environment leads to the most amount of learning?
If the environment is highly predictable between genreations, over time nature could select for teh best traits for that organism in that environment
What environment leads to the least amount of learning for a species?
An environment that is unpredictable/ changing between generations and an individual’s lifetime - nothing there long enough to learn from
Risks to social learning?
- other animals might have the wrong solution
- sometimes theres an advantage to figuring a task out yourself
Types of things that are not social learning?
- local enhancement
2. social facilitation
definition: local enhancement
drawn to a location because others are there
example: red knot flat chosen after watching mudflat video example
definition: social facilitaion
the presence of others facilitates anothers behaviours
- animals being around might make another animal more likely to do a task
ex: gulls around might make another gull feel afer to prine
definition: teaching
behaviour directed at a naive observer who thus acquires skills more efficiently
ex: meercats video
explain cultural evolution.
Is it the same as natural selection
once you have social learning you can have social transmissino of learned traits - can be parallel to the process of evolution by natural selection
hippocampus function in spatial tasks
hippocampal formation is bigger in food catching birds that rely more on spatial function
Hippocampus neuron firing - spatial recognition
different neurons fire based on position in space. When rats go back to same place as before, same neurons fire as were when in the same spot previously
do animal’s brains go through where they’ve been during the day when they sleep? example?
Yes, in rats the neurons fired off in the order that the rats ran through the arena
How did we get rats to go to a specific area in the arena when they woke up
when researches stimulated the reward part of a rats brain when its neurons were firing for a particiluar space when the rat was alseep, when the rat woke up it went straight to that space.
can fear influence the neurons firing in the hippocampus correlating to position in space
yes, neurons shut down and don’t fire the same around threat the rat has previously encountered. If you interfere with the amygdala this doesnt happen
the benefit of social trnamission of navigation to a species?
it provides the best route of navigation over generations
3 hypothesis of social info in group navigation:
- Follow the leader
- Many wrongs
- Emergent sensing
explain “follow the leader” as a group navigation hypothesis
one way- one of more members of group lead everyone, they have high information, the more clueless birds follow suit
explain “ many wrongs” as a group nevigation hypothesis
one way- whole bunch of birds each knows a bit of what they’re doing and if everyone going in their direction but also keeping with others - might average out to decent path- end up, all together, in the right direction
what kind of birds might the “many wrongs” hypothesis of group navigation be best for?
birds that migrate at night and have specie specific calling
explain the “emergent sensing” hypothesis of group navigation
one way- sensing about the environment, picking up on it bc collectively they pick up on it, individually they only pick up very little m bc the links between them they can better identify landmarks
What does communication require
animal stimulating the behaviour of another in order to affect the animal in a intended way - requries both directions - not forcing a behvaiour but stimulation it with your on behaviour
signal evolution: what is adaptive for males and what is adaptive for females
adaptiove for males to get into the decision-making prcoess of a female and hypnotize her into mating
Adaptive for females to see through the bullshit and pick the best male
A strict communication definition: For X to mean anything ..... 1. 2. 3.
For X to mean anything…
- The sender intends that x induces a response
- Sender intends that the reciever recognizes the signal he sends
- sender intends that by recognizing the signal given, the receiver does the response
what is ostensive signalling?
shoing the receiver teh intent
ex: chimps pointing where they want to be groomed so the other chimp will scratch that spot
what is major divider between huaman communication and animal communication?
- intentional communication
- complexity of human communication
definition: combining sounds in various ways to produce different meanings
combinatorial syntax
definition: from cues to signals
- cueing more specifically in way that serves more as communication
ritualization
developmental stress in birds effects what (stuyd on this)
spatial memory tasks and length of songs - shortened them
types of stressors?
food, nutrition, environment
what does developmental programming do? what is its goal?
programs ian individual for life success by working out behavioural and sensory mechanisms early so they are automatic in later critcal situations
how do environmental conditions act on developmental programming?
they can alter horome titres and the activity of developmental growth pathways
in response to environmental triggers, the coordination between _______ and _______ determines the behaviour or the animal
coordination between morphology and connectivity of the neuronal system determines the behaviour of the animal
a basic mechanism of learning that happens during a sensitivity period
imprinting
ignoring a repeating stimulus in the environment in order to focus on things that are actually changing
habituation
the process of becoming highly sensitive to a stimulus you previously were not responsive to
sensitization
what places do birds avoid when choosing a spot to live
a place that plays their own song
what is an unconditioned stimulus
a stimulus that naturally elicits a response - an involuntary response
what is a conditinoed stimulus
a stimulus that elicits a conditioned response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus
what is second roder conditioning
conditioning a response to an stimulus that has been paired with a conditioned stimulus
when you condition an animal with a paired stimlus, and then do not get as large of a response when suddenly presenting the stimlus as two seperate parts
overshadowing
what kind of behavious is reinforced with operant conditioning
voluntary behaviours
what kinds of behaviours are being reinforced with classical conditinoing
involuntary behaviours
conditioning with reinforcers - method of learning that occurs through reward or punishment for voluntary behaviours
operant conditioning
explain the black box and BF skinners reasoning
the black box represents the mind and inferred states.
SKinner wanted to be completley scientific and said not to account for inferred states bc we cant know for sure hwat an animal experinces. Instead only focus on behaviour and the cause of behaviours - all observable
skinners best approach to studying behaviour?
look at actions and their consequence
increase probability of a behaviour being repeated
reinforcers
decrease probability of a behaviour being repeated
punishment
Apparatus used to study animal behaviour
Operant conditioning chamber
skinner box
More clueless birds follow the leader who has high information
follow the leader
Everyone knows a bit about what they are doing, average out to right path
Best for birds working at night, have specific calls
many wrongs
Sense environment, pick on a bit, altogether pick up on a lot (landmarks)
emergent sensing
_____: Working out all things you need in critical situations so they become automatic
learning
memory type: events that can be reported from an individual’s life
episodic memory
memory type: our implicit knowledge of tasks that usually do not require conscious recall to perform them
procedural memory
variation in size of hippocampus
bigger in animals who need more memory for tasks
- can vary in size over lifetime and season depending on animal for pupos of saving energy and usefulness for tasks based on time in year
what stores long term memory
dendritic spins
an exchange of informaiton
communication
____: from cues to signals. Make behaviours more obvious, more distinctive ex: catepillar defending its leaf
ritualization
aspects of ritualization behaviours
- repetition
- standing out from other normal behavious
- easier for receiver to stereotype and categorize to a specific meaning
strict definition of communication (ostensive signalling criteria)
for x to mean anything
- S intends x to induce a response
- S intends R to recognize S’s intention
- S intends by recognizing intentino, R will do a specific response
_______: selection on senders to manipulate receiver’s behaviour, selection on receivers to anticipate aspects of a sender
signal evolution
_______: when animals convey semantic/ relevant information.
example from class?
referential signals
noisy miners overhead predator call and ground predator call
_______: showing receiver your intent with gestures (usually)
ostensive signalling
migration requires what (2 things):
navigation/ map
orientation/ direction
