Chapter 51 Flashcards
An unlearned behavior directly linked to a stimulus that is carried to completion once initiated and is essentially unchangeable is _____.
a fixed action pattern
Animal communication involves what type of sensory input?
visual, tactile, olfactory, auditory
In the territorial behavior of the stickleback fish, the red belly of one male that elicits attack from another male is functioning as
a sign stimulus.
A learning process that can occur only during a limited period of the individual’s development is called _____.
imprinting
Every morning a graduate student turns on the light in the laboratory and then feeds the fish in the aquarium. After a couple of weeks of this routine, the graduate student notices that the fish come to the surface to feed as soon as the lights are turned on. The behavior of the fish is a result of _____.
classical conditioning
Through trial and error, a rat learns to run a maze without mistakes to receive a food reward.
operant conditioning
A type of learning that can occur only during a brief period of early life and results in a behavior that is difficult to modify through later experiences is called
imprinting.
A type of bird similar to a chickadee learns to peck through the cardboard tops of milk bottles left on doorsteps to obtain the desired cream from the top. What term best applies to this behavior?
operant conditioning
What is the normal imprinting stimulus to a hatchling graylag goose?
a nearby object that is moving away
Feeding behavior with a high intake to expenditure ratio is called _____.
optimal foraging
Which of the following might affect the foraging behavior of an animal in the context of optimal foraging?
risk of predation
prey density
prey size
prey defenses
According to Hamilton’s rule,
natural selection favors altruistic acts when the resulting benefit to the beneficiary, corrected for relatedness, exceeds the cost to the altruist.
Female spotted sandpipers aggressively court males and, after mating, leave the clutch of young for the male to incubate. This sequence may be repeated several times with different males until no available males remain, forcing the female to incubate her last clutch. Which of the following terms best describes this behavior?
polyandry
The presence of altruistic behavior is most likely due to kin selection, a theory maintaining that
genes enhance survival of copies of themselves by directing organisms to assist others who share those genes.
