behaviour- ben Flashcards
What is habituation?
When animals stop responding to a repeated stimulus
Eg. annoying a cat by clicking, after a while it will stop responding
Eg. sea slugs- fire water to stimulate a response, after a while it stops responding
What happens in habituation?
The Ca2+ synapses become less effective
There is decreases neurotransmitter release and decreased firing rate
= altered synaptic strength
What is sensitisation?
The simultaneous presentation of shock and touch, resulting in the animal becoming highly sensitised to touch
Linked to the habituation network
Eg little Albert- shock and white rat
Sensitisation example
Don’t normally get maternal behaviour in rats until they have given birth
Respond to the odour of pups, which amplifies the response and creates sensitisation
What is learning?
A change in behaviour following experience
The strengthening of a synapse
An engram is the physical basis of memory
What does Dunce mutation do?
Those with the mutation struggle to remember the association between odour and shock
Classical conditioning examples
- Pavlov’s dogs
Linked bell to food, salivate at bell - Blue gourami
Males defend territory against other males
Can condition males by announcing the arrival of gravid females
Misplaced aggression was reduced, more offspring produced
Selective benefits to learning
Conditioning causing evolutionary changes
- Aposematic colouration in prey
- Eg. birds link colour to bad taste of monarch butterfly
- Leads to Batesian mimicry
- Eg. bombardier beetle shoots out a chemical, relies on defense colouration and learning ability of predators
Operant conditioning
Punishment/reinforcement
Eg. skinner box
- Electrical grid for shocks, a stimuli (noise or light), have to do a response eg pull a lever in response to the stimuli to get a reward
Social learning
How customs are spread
Eg. macaques in Japan
- Wash sweet potatoes left on the beach to get rid of sand
- Custom spread to rest of young monkeys, but only young ones
Insight learning
Learning that happens all of a sudden through understanding the relationships of various parts of a problem rather than through trial and error
Eg. Sultan the chimp tied 2 sticks together to get food
Eg. Pigeons can move box to get to the banana, but if colour/shape of box changed, can’t- no insight learning
Key criteria of play
Doesn’t immediately contribute to fitness
Occurs in safe conditions free from stress
Repeated at different developmental stages
Problems
Anthropomorphism
May be bored in captivity
Unnatural behaviours in captivity
May be acquiring skills
When do animals play?
Rats- lots around weaning, then stop
Dolphins/chimps- start at weaning, continue to play
What are the costs of play?
South american fur seals
- Of 26 pups that died, 84% died in play- large fitness cost
Cheetahs
- Play by cheetah cubs causes 1.5% of hunts to fail- cost to parents and offspring
Vervet monkeys
- Juveniles play more when there is more food available, less in dry season
- So only when other needs are met?
Benefits of play
Enhanced motor skills
Enhanced physiological development
Communication skills
Flexible thinking
What are the different types of play?
1) Object play
- Not alive, can be edible or non-edible
- Juvenile ravens presented with 44 objects, played with all, continued to play with edible
- Octopus releases and catches crab prey
2) Locomotion play
- Jumping, tail-chasing etc
- Alone
- Formation of synapses coincides with the time of maximum play in mice, rats and cats (just correlation)
3) Social
- Any play with another individual
- In big horn sheep, males and females prefer to play with their own sex
- May establish social position
Sex differences in play
Beluga whales:
- Females perform more object play
- Males do more motor
Macaques:
- Males not interested in cuddly toys, females interested in all
- Silly study
Bonobos:
- Male water play is more vigorous
Guilty dogs
14 domestic dogs
Told not to eat treat, owner left, came back and was told either had or hadn’t eaten treat, regardless of what dog did
No effect of eating on whether dog looked guilty or not- responded to scolding
Mirror recognition experimets
Chimps:
- Red dot on eyebrow
- Self-directed behaviour
- Only seen in apes
- Mirrors aren’t natural- not ecologically valid
Dolphins:
- Looked at fake mark- just looking to see what had been done to flipper?
- If marked, spent longer in front of mirror
- Also not ecologically valid
Asian elephants:
- White cross on head
- Only one showed self-directed behaviours
- African smashed glass
Magpie:
- Dot on throat
- Self-recognition
- Black mark = less
Manta rays:
- Not social behaviour in front of mirror, just odd
- No marks, so not evidence
