BOHA - 6

Question 1

what is the common misconception of nature vs nurture?

Answer 1

its a false dichotomy, there is actually no such thing - this distinction is far too simple

Question 2

describe the honey bee example which disproves nature vs nurture

Answer 2

honey bees have age related changes in behaviour, as they get older they produce more of a hormone that encourages adult activities such as foraging (nature) however environmental factors also effect the how much is produced such as behaviour of other bees

Question 3

what is the function of ethyl oleate in honey bees and what type of mechanism is it?

Answer 3

only forager bees produce it and it inhibits foraging in younger bees = proximate mechanism

Question 4

describe David Barkers fetal origins hypothesis

Answer 4

• he looked into the effects of early nutrition in human pregnancies on subsequent individuals
• he concluded experiences as a foetus can have devastating lifelong effects

Question 5

describe the thrifty phenotype

Answer 5

poor nutrition creates small offspring – idea that this is an evolutionary adaptation to deal with food shortages – no food during pregnancy may mean no food when growing up so a small offspring requires less food

Question 6

describe catch up growth and how its used in the food industry?

Answer 6

• rapid rise in body weight
• use a fraction the amount of food that a normal growth rate would
• used In the farming industry to save money
• negative consequences if the animals were to live on

Question 7

describe the study on zebra finches and catch up growth

Answer 7

• reared on high or low protein diet
  – showed no apparent difference in adult male phenotype – then as their lifetime went on the low protein diet birds did not live for as long
  – trade off for phenotype - more energy went into breeding plumage
  – short life span

Question 8

what is the consequence for red deer calves that are born in a cold spring?

Answer 8

• their birth weight is low
• low birth weight means higher mortality
• among those that survive they produce lower birth weight offspring themselves

Question 9

in litter bearing mammals how can position in the uterus affect behaviour?

Answer 9

• different areas of the uterus means they have different traits - females with males either side of them develop differently to females inbetween 2 females
• environmental difference before birth affects subsequent adult behaviour and survival/reproductive success

Question 10

whats the difference in 2M females and 0M females in mammalian litters?

Answer 10

2M - more aggressive and less attractive to males than 0M

Question 11

what is a study on the affects of fetal hormones in humans?

Answer 11

it was thought women with a twin brother had a lower chance of getting married and having children

Question 12

learning was once thought to be the environmental side of the nature vs nurture debate what 3 ways of learning disprove this?

Answer 12

• Innate behaviours for example:
  1) Habituation (form of learning after a stimulus)
  2) imprinting (a form of phase sensitive learning only occurs during different phases of the lifecycle)
  3) associative learning e.g. linking a sound with an action - exemplified by pavlovs dog experiments

Question 13

2 examples of diseases caused by things that happen to the baby in the uterus?

Answer 13

1) thalidomide

2) fetal alcohol syndrome