Chapter 51 Key Terms

Question 1

agnostic behavior

Answer 1

A type of behavior involving a contest of some kind that determines which competitor gains access to some resource, such as food or mates.

Question 2

altruism

Answer 2

Behavior that reduces an individual’s fitness while increasing the fitness of another individual.

Question 3

associative learning

Answer 3

The acquired ability to associate one stimulus with another; also called classical conditioning

Question 4

behavioral ecology

Answer 4

A heuristic approach based on the expectation that Darwinian fitness (reproductive success) is improved by optimal behavior

Question 5

classical conditioning

Answer 5

A type of associative learning; the association of a normally irrelevant stimulus with a fixed behavioral response

Question 6

coefficient of relatedness

Answer 6

The probability that a particular gene present in one individual will also be inherited from a common parent ot ancestor in a second individual

Question 7

cognition

Answer 7

The ability of an animal’s nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information obtained by its sensory receptors.

Question 8

cognitive ethology

Answer 8

The scientific study of cognition; the study of the connection between data processing by nervous systems and animal behavior.

Question 9

cognitive map

Answer 9

A representation within the nervous system of spatial relations between objects in an animal’s environment.

Question 10

communication

Answer 10

Animal behavior involving transmission of, reception of, and response to signals.

Question 11

culture

Answer 11

The ideas, customs, skills, rituals, and similar activities of a people or group that are passed along to succeeding generations.

Question 12

ethology

Answer 12

The study of animal behavior in natural conditions.

Question 13

fixed action pattern (FAP)

Answer 13

A sequence of behavioral acts that is essentially unchangeable and usually carried to completion once initiated.

Question 14

foraging

Answer 14

Behavior necessary to recognize, search for, capture, and consume food.

Question 15

game theory

Answer 15

An approach to evaluating alternative strategies in situations where the outcome depends not only on each individual’s strategy but also on the strategies of other individuals; a way of thinking about behavioral evolution in situations where the fitness of a particular behavioral phenotype is influenced by other behavioral phenotypes in the population.

Question 16

habituation

Answer 16

A very simple type of learning that involves a loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no information.

Question 17

Hamilton’s rule

Answer 17

The principle that for natural selection to favor an altruistic act, the benefit to the recipient, devalued by the coefficient of relatedness, must exceed the cost to the altruist.

Question 18

imprinting

Answer 18

A type of learned behavior with a significant innate component, acquired during a limited critical period.

Question 19

inclusive fitness

Answer 19

The total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing its own offspring and by providing aid that enables other close relatives to increase the production of their offspring.

Question 20

innate behavior

Answer 20

Behavior that is developmentally fixed and under stroge genetic control. Innate behavior is exhibited in virtually the same form by all individuals in a population despite internal and external environmentl differences during development and throughout their lifetimes.

Question 21

kin selection

Answer 21

A phenomenon of inclusive fitness, used to explain altruistic behavior between related individuals.

Question 22

kinesis

Answer 22

A change in activity or turning rate in response to a stimulus.

Question 23

landmarking

Answer 23

A point of reference for orientation during navigation.

Question 24

learning

Answer 24

A behavioral change resulting from experience.

Question 25

mate-choice copying

Answer 25

Behavior in which individuals in a population copy the mate choice of others, apparently as a result of social learning.

Question 26

monogamous

Answer 26

A type of relationship in which one male mates with just one female.

Question 27

operant conditioning

Answer 27

A type of associative learning in which an animal learns to associate one of its own behaviors with a reward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavior; also called trial-and-error learning.

Question 28

optimal foraging theory

Answer 28

The basis for analyzing behavior as a compromise of feeding costs versus feeding benefits.

Question 29

pheromone

Answer 29

In animals and fungi, a small, volatile chemical that functions in communication and that in animals acts much like a hormone in influencing physiology and behavior.

Question 30

polyandry

Answer 30

A polygamous mating system involving one female and many males.

Question 31

polygamous

Answer 31

A type of relationship in which an individual of one sex mates with several of the other.

Question 32

polygyny

Answer 32

A polygamous mating system involving one male and many females.

Question 33

promiscuous

Answer 33

A type of relationship in which mating occurs with no strong pair-bonds or lasting relationships.

Question 34

proximate question

Answer 34

In animal behavior, an inquiry that focuses on the environmental stimuli, if any, that trigger a particular behavioral act, as well as the genetic, physiological, and anatomical mechanisms underlying it.

Question 35

reciprocal altruism

Answer 35

Altruistic behavior between unrelated individuals, whereby the current altruistic individual benefits in the future when the current beneficiary reciprocates.

Question 36

sensitive period

Answer 36

A limited phase in an individual animal’s development when learning of particular behaviors can take place.

Question 37

sign stimulus

Answer 37

An external sensory stimulus that triggers a fixed action pattern.

Question 38

signal

Answer 38

A behavior that causes a change in behavior in another animal.

Question 39

social learning

Answer 39

Modification of behavior through the observation of other individuals.

Question 40

sociobiology

Answer 40

The study of social behavior based on evolutionary theory.

Question 41

spatial learning

Answer 41

Modification of behavior based on experience of the spatial structure of the environment.

Question 42

taxis

Answer 42

Movement toward or away from a stimulus.

Question 43

ultimate question

Answer 43

In animal behavior, an inquiry that focuses on the evolutionary significance of a behavioral act.