Biology Unit 4.6 - Behaviour Flashcards
What is innate behaviour?
Behaviours that are inherited and ‘instinctive’
What is an escape reflex?
A rapid automatic response to a stimulus with a protective function that enhances survival
What is kinesis?
Non-directional, random movements of a whole organism, where in unfavourable conditions the organism moves quickly with few turns, while in favourable conditions slowly with more turns
What are taxes?
Directional responses by the whole organism moving towards (positive) or away from (negative) a stimulus
What is learned behaviour?
Behaviours based on past experience and can be modified
What is habituation?
Learning to ignore a stimulus as it brings neither reward or punishment
What is imprinting?
Happens early in young animals, where they become attached to the first larger moving object they detect, which is reinforced by gaining food/warmth from the object
What is conditioning?
Type of associative behaviour in which a particular stimulus is linked to a particular response
What is classical conditioning?
Form of conditioning where an artificial stimulus is associated with a natural stimulus, causing it to provoke a similar/the same response
What is operant conditioning?
Association of particular behaviours with reward or punishment
What is exploration/latent learning?
Exploratory learning, by which animals explore new surroundings and learn, enhancing survival
What is insight learning?
Instance where a solution to a problem is found by accident but is immediatelt applied in the future
Kohler put bananas out of a chimp’s reach, where the only way to get them was through joining two sticks together, which was done every time once the chimp had worked it out
What is imitation?
Behaviour where animals learn by observing others e.g., the spread of tool use in chimpanzes
What is social behaviour?
Describes interaction between members of the same species
How are social groups formed?
Social behaviour requires communication, which starts with one individual producing a signal (sign stimulus) that is detected by another
May trigger an innate response by activating nerve pathways that cause coordinated movements, called stereotyped behaviours of fixed action (FAPs)
Are complex and can be changed by experience, and is also affected by motivational state e.g., hungry cheetah stalking prey compared to a cheetah that is not hungry and not pursuing an animal
What are the advantages of social groups?
- Provides protection from predators
- Food sharing
- Increased mate availability
What are the disadvantages of social groups?
- Increased competition for mates and food
- Increased spread of diseases
- Higher visibility to predators
Explain social behaviour in insects…
Social insects live in colonies, which are split into different groups called castes, which each perform different roles e.g., bee colonies; fertile female queen, sterile female worker bees, and fertile male bees (drones)
Explain social behaviour in vertebrates?
Social groups are constrcuted according to a dominance hierarchy, where a higher ranking individual is dominant over a lower ranking individual
Most hierarchies are linear, meaning no member is equal
Explain communication in social insects?
Communication within bee colonies is done through pheromones, physical touch and ‘dances’ (visual orientation displays), where ‘dances’ let other bees know the location of a nectar source and are performed on a vertical plane
Types of ‘dances’:
* Round - Nectar source is less than 70m from the hive, but no direction is indicated
* Waggle - Nectar source is greater than 70m from the hive, provides information about the exact distance, as well as direction relative to the hive and the Sun’s position
What are the advantages of dominance hierarchies?
- Reduces aggression in reference to feeding, breeding-site selection, and mate selection
- Food sharing ensures the ‘fittest’ survive
- Stable once established
- Fighting for position is used as a last resort
What occurs when fighting for position?
Used as a last resort, which follows a fixed action pattern, where each reflex is stimulated by the last action (sign stimulus) of the other individual, with the winner taking the higher rank within the hierarchy
What is courtship?
Process used to attract a mate, allowing for species and gender recognition, receptiveness to mating and maintain pair bonds for care of the young, enhancing their survival
What are courtship behaviours?
Innate behaviours which often follow a fixed action pattern
What is sexual dimorphism?
Process where the appearance of male and female members of a species appear different
What is sexual selection?
Works against natural selection to highlight characteristics, as opposed to making them less conspicuous, where two theories exist
What is intra-sexual selection/male-to-male combat?
In species where males are bigger they fight for sexual access to many females, where this form of selection has favoured the evolution of larger, more aggressive males
What is inter-sexual selection/female choice?
Selection where females choose the ‘fittest’ male based on the physical attractiveness model and male handicap model
What is territory?
An area consistently defended against members of the same species, which allows for efficient exploitation of resources, and can occur by display, vocalisations or scent marking
