Chapter 3 - The study of animal behavior and its neural basis: A brief history

Question 1

Aristotle (384-322 BC) and his approach

Answer 1

Although inductive and comparative on the one side, is also anecdotal, vitalistic, teleological, and anthropomorphic on the other side

Question 2

Inductive

Answer 2

Use specific examples to make generalizations

Question 3

Anecdotal

Answer 3

One-time observation

Question 4

Vitalistic

Answer 4

Life/alive

Question 5

Teleological

Answer 5

Animal behavior is explained by contributing it to its end goal/purpose

Question 6

Anthropomorphic

Answer 6

Explanation of biological phenomenon from a human point of view

Question 7

Vis vitalis

Answer 7

• Intrinsic life principle
• When something was unknown and they couldn’t explain it, they would contribute it to vis vitalis

Question 8

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and mind body dualism

Answer 8

• Mind is completely separate from matter
  – Mind cannot be explained in scientific terms

Question 9

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Answer 9

• Wrote “On the Origin of Species”
• Principles of evolution apply not only to morphological characteristics, but also to behavior

Question 10

Homology / homologous

Answer 10

• 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)

Question 11

Homoplasy

Answer 11

• 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)

Question 12

Douglas Spalding (1841-1877)

Answer 12

Discovered phenomenon of imprinting in domestic chicken

Question 13

Conway Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936) and Morgan’s canon (1894)

Answer 13

“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

Question 14

Douglas Spalding and Conway Lloyd Morgan introduced…

Answer 14

Experimental and objective approaches to the study of animal behavior

Question 15

Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944) and umwelt

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

Oskar Heinroth (1871-1945) and Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)

Answer 16

Both studied imprinting

Question 17

Kaspar Hauser (1812? - 1833)

Answer 17

Boy who had spent his whole life in a basement

Question 18

Harry F. Harlow (1905-1981)

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

Jane Goodall (1934-)

Answer 19

• 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

Question 20

Ethology

Answer 20

• The study of natural behavior of animals
• Founded by Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, who provided a conceptual framework for this new biological discipline

Question 21

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Answer 21

Classical conditioning

Question 22

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

Answer 22

The Little Albert experiment (classical fear conditioning)

Question 23

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Answer 23

• Operant conditioning and free will
• Skinner box

Question 24

Mechanistic schools…

Answer 24

Share with ethology the objective approach; however, in contrast to ethology, their emphasis is on laboratory-based experiments

Question 25

Nature vs nurture controversy

Answer 25

• 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

Question 26

The fathers of neuroethology

Answer 26

• Karl von Frisch
• Hansjochem Autrum
• Erich von Holst
• Ted Bullock

Question 27

Neuroethology

Answer 27

• 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

Question 28

The study of animal behavior through history

Answer 28

• 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