Behavior Vocab - Ecology

Question 1

Fixed Action pattern

Answer 1

preprogrammed response to a stimulus

Question 2

Habituation

Answer 2

loss of responsiveness to unimportant stimuli or stimuli that provides no feedback

Question 3

Imprinting

Answer 3

innate behavior learned during critical period early in life

Question 4

Associative learning

Answer 4

one stimulus is associated with another (Classical conditioning - Pavlov)

Question 5

Operant conditioning

Answer 5

trial-and-error learning (aposometric predator training)

Question 6

Insight learning

Answer 6

ability to reason through a problem the first time through with no prior experience

Question 7

Observational learning

Answer 7

learning by watching someone else do it first

Question 8

Kinesis

Answer 8

change in the speed of movement in response to a stimulus. (Organisms will move faster in bad environments and slower in good ones)

Question 9

Migration

Answer 9

cyclic movement of animals over long distances according to the time of year

Question 10

Taxis

Answer 10

reflex movement toward or away from a stimulus

Question 11

Agonistic behavior

Answer 11

conflict behavior over access to a resource. Often a matter of which animal can mount the most threatening display and scare the other into submission

Question 12

Dominance hierarchies

Answer 12

ranking of power amongst the members of a group; subject to change. Since members of the group know the order, less energy is wasted in conflicts over food and resources

Question 13

Territoriality

Answer 13

defense of territory to keep others out

Question 14

Altruistic behavior

Answer 14

action in which an organism helps another at its own expense

Question 15

Reciprocal altruism

Answer 15

animals behave altruistically toward others who are not relatives, hoping that the favor will be returned sometime in the future

Question 15

Foraging

Answer 15

feeding behavior of an individual. Animals have a search image that directs them to food

Question 16

Optimal Foraging

Answer 16

natural selection favors those whose foraging strategies that maximize the differential between costs and benefits, If the effort involved in obtaining food outweighs the nutritive value of the food, forget about it.

Question 17

Inclusive fitness

Answer 17

the ability of individuals to pass their genes not only through the production of their own offspring, but also by providing aid to enable closely related individuals to produce offspring

Question 18

Coefficient of relatedness

Answer 18

statistic that represents the average proportion of genes tow individuals have in common. The higher the value, the more likely they would be to altruistically aid one another

Question 19

chemical communication

Answer 19

communication through the use of chemical signals, such as pheromones

Question 20

visual communication

Answer 20

communication through the use of visual cues, such as the tail feather displays of peacocks

Question 21

auditory communication

Answer 21

communication through the use of sound, such as the chirping of frogs in the summer

Question 22

tactile communication

Answer 22

communication through the use of touch, such as a handshake in humans