Ch. 37 Behavioral Adaptations to the Environment Flashcards
Animal Behavior
External observable muscular activity. It is what an animal does when interacting with environment.
Behavioral Biology
Science of behavior
What did Karl Von Frisch do?
He pioneered the use of experimental methods in behavior.
What did Konrad Lorenz do?
The founder. He noted importance of comparing the behavior of various animals by same stimulus
What did Niko Tinbergen do?
He studied innate behavior and simple learning.
The immediate explanation for an organism’s behavior
Proximate cause
Evolutionary explanation for an organism’s behavior
Ultimate cause
Scientific search for evolutionary basis of behavior as mechanisms of reproductive success
Behavior ecology
Behavior that appears to be performed in virtually the same way by all members of a species
Innate Behavior
A genetically programmed, virtually unchangeable behavioral sequence performed in response to a certain stimulus
- enables to perform vital activities without learning (natural selection)
Fixed Action Patterns
A stimulus that triggers fixed action patterns
Sign Stimulus
A behavioral change resulting from experience
Learning
Habituation
Learning not to response to a repeated stimulus that conveys little/no info
- highly adaptive, focus on important info
Imprinting
Irreversible and limited to a critical time period in an animal’s life; results in strong bond between offspring and parent
- enables rapid learning (any age)
Associative Learning
Learning that a particular stimulus/response is linked to a reward/punishment
A type of learning in which arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment
Classical Conditioning
Learning to associate a particular behavioral act with a positive/negative effect
Trial - and - error learning
Imitation
Learning by observing and mimicking the behavior of others (no critical period)
Innovation
Ability to respond approximately to a new situation without prior experience
- mainly with primates
Ascribing human motivation, conscious, awareness or feeling to other animals
- don’t know if true/extent
Anthropomorphism
A biological cycle of 24 hours controlled by a biological clock (under influence of environmental cues)
- a pattern of activity repeated daily
- tested by Stefania Follini
- affects wellbeing, productivity, judgement
Circadian Rythm
Random movement in response to a stimulus
Kinesis
Directed movement resulting in an organism’s placing itself in a specific position relative to an environmental cue
Orientation Behavior
Virtually automatic orientation toward or away from a stimulus
Taxis
Ability of an animal’s nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information obtained by its sensory receptors
Cognition
Scientific study of cognition; connection of data process between nerves and behavior
- cognitive maps
Cognitive Ethology
Representations within nervous systems of spatial relations among objects in envionment
Cognitive Maps
The regular back and forth movement of animals between two geographic points at particular time
- access to rich food and breeding grounds
Seasonal Migration
Mechanism that enables an animal to find a particular kind of food efficiently
Search Image
Feeding behavior that provides max. energy gain with min. energy expense and min. time searching/securing/eating
- low cost/benefit ratio
Optimal foraging
Any kind of interaction between two or more animals usually of the same species
- Communication
- affects growth/regulation of population and fitness
Social Behavioir
Confrontational behavior involving a contest waged by threats, displays, or actual combat, which settles disputes over limited resources (food/mates)
- avoid violent combat which would lower fitness
Agonistic Behavior
Ranking of individuals based on social interactions
- reduce time spent on agonistic behavior for other things
Dominance Hierarchy
Territorial behavior; area an individual defends and from which other members of the same species are usually excluded
- varies with species, function, resources
- proclaim rights and exclusive access
Territoriality
Prospective partners perform elaborate courtship rituals to assure same species, opposite gender, primed to mate, and not a threat
Mating Behavior
Social behavior and social organization depends on this
Signaling
Behavior that reduces an individual’s fitness which increasing the fitness of another individual
- colony of cooperative group
Altruism
The concept that altruism evolves because it increases the # of copies of a gene common to related organisms
- natural selection
Kin Selection
A selfless act repaid at a later time by the beneficiary or by another member of the beneficiary’s social system (non-relatives)
Reciprocal Altruism
Sociobiology
Study of evolutionary basis of social behavior
- perpetuated by natural selection
