Chapter 3 - The study of animal behavior and its neural basis: A brief history Flashcards
Aristotle (384-322 BC) and his approach
Although inductive and comparative on the one side, is also anecdotal, vitalistic, teleological, and anthropomorphic on the other side
Inductive
Use specific examples to make generalizations
Anecdotal
One-time observation
Vitalistic
Life/alive
Teleological
Animal behavior is explained by contributing it to its end goal/purpose
Anthropomorphic
Explanation of biological phenomenon from a human point of view
Vis vitalis
- Intrinsic life principle
- When something was unknown and they couldn’t explain it, they would contribute it to vis vitalis
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and mind body dualism
- Mind is completely separate from matter
– Mind cannot be explained in scientific terms
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
- Wrote “On the Origin of Species”
- Principles of evolution apply not only to morphological characteristics, but also to behavior
Homology / homologous
- Similarity between traits that is due to shared ancestry
- Structure that is evolutionarily conserved; common ancestor
– Functions do not have to be the same in the different organisms (e.g., flying and digging)
Homoplasy
- Similarity between traits that is not derived from a common ancestor
- “Convergent evolution”
– Example –> forelimbs looking similar because they have the same function (does not mean they have a common ancestor)
Douglas Spalding (1841-1877)
Discovered phenomenon of imprinting in domestic chicken
Conway Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936) and Morgan’s canon (1894)
“In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale” –> if you hear hoof beats, think horses not zebras
Douglas Spalding and Conway Lloyd Morgan introduced…
Experimental and objective approaches to the study of animal behavior
Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944) and umwelt
- That part of the environment which is perceived after sensory and central filtering
– Humans and bees have different umwelts because they have different ranges of color vision
Oskar Heinroth (1871-1945) and Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
Both studied imprinting
Kaspar Hauser (1812? - 1833)
Boy who had spent his whole life in a basement
Harry F. Harlow (1905-1981)
- Monkey experiments
– Wanted to learn about love
– Raised monkeys in isolation to study innate vs learned behavior –> not that simple, there are certain innate components but environment also plays a large part
Jane Goodall (1934-)
- Studied and lived with chimps for years in the forest in Africa
– Chimps use tools, can be cruel, laugh, love, etc.
– Goodall was not taken seriously by the scientific community
Ethology
- The study of natural behavior of animals
- Founded by Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, who provided a conceptual framework for this new biological discipline
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Classical conditioning
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
The Little Albert experiment (classical fear conditioning)
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
- Operant conditioning and free will
- Skinner box
Mechanistic schools…
Share with ethology the objective approach; however, in contrast to ethology, their emphasis is on laboratory-based experiments
Nature vs nurture controversy
- Behaviorists believed in nurture
- Ethologists believed in nature
- Ethology vs behaviorism –> the denial of innate components of behavior by behaviorists due to learned behavior
- Now, it is known that both are involved
The fathers of neuroethology
- Karl von Frisch
- Hansjochem Autrum
- Erich von Holst
- Ted Bullock
Neuroethology
- A breakthrough in the establishment of neuroethology was possible by focusing on simple and robust forms of behavior, and by applying modern neurobiological methods to explore the entire chain of sensory and neural mechanisms underlying these behaviors
- A distinctive feature of neuroethology is the attempt to gain an integrative understanding of how the brain controls behavior in the whole animal
The study of animal behavior through history
- Began with Aristotle and behavioral research was made up of anecdotal, vitalistic, teleological, and anthropomorphic approaches
– Wanted to prove the superiority of mankind and the difference between the “rational soul” of man and the “sensitive soul” of beasts - Darwin’s evolutionary theory started a more objective way to study behavior
– Increased interest in behavioral observations from a comparative perspective, marking the beginning of ethological research - Ethology
– Comparative observations were conducted under natural or semi-natural conditions
– Experimental approaches, operational definitions, and objective interpretations were also used
– Lorenz and Tinbergen placed the observational and experimental data accumulated at that time within a conceptual framework - Mechanistically oriented schools (at the same time as ethology)
– Loeb’s theory of tropisms –> involuntary orienting movements
– Pavlov’s reflex theory influenced the development of behaviorism
— Watson believed that behavior could be explained in physiological terms based on reflexes
— Skinner believed that experimental manipulations and operational definitions were needed to understand behavior - Neuroethology emerged when scientists began applying modern neurobiological concepts and techniques to the elucidation of neural mechanisms underlying simple forms of behavior in animals
– Contributions originated from neurophysiology and sensory physiology
