Comp Psych Exam 1

Question 1

Natural selection is fundamentally about survival of the fittest

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The researcher could watch the Japanese tits in their natural environment and record when a call is given, what the call is, and how the tits react.

Answer 2

Observational

Question 3

In order for Darwinian natural selection to cause evolutionary change, a population must contain individuals that differ hereditarily in some characteristics because

Answer 3

unless there is variation of this osrt, parents cannot pass on their advantageous attributes to their offspring

Question 4

Consider the following observation: Male song sparrows sing more at dawn than during any other time of day. WHICH OF THESE 3 IS ASKING A QUESTION THAT MAY BE ANSWERED BY EMPLOYING OBSERVATIONAL STUDY DESIGN

Answer 4

X with regard to answering this question: “What is the evolved function of the pattern of song production by the song sparrow?”

Question 5

In what way does the theory of descent with modification differ from the theory of evolution by natural selection?

Answer 5

Descent with modification provides an account of the evolutionary events that took place as a modern species evolved from ancestral ones; natural selection theory provides a means for why some changes spread through a species while others did not

Question 6

A benefit to this approach is that it is a basic and easy way to define and record the animals’ behaviors

Answer 6

Observational

Question 7

A benefit to this approach is that the researcher can generate ideas beyond a single species

Answer 7

Comparative

Question 8

A benefit to this approach is that the researcher can establish a more direct causal relationship between the type of predator and the bird’s response

Answer 8

Experimental

Question 9

Does this data support the predator distraction hypothesis?

Answer 9

Yes, the data demonstrate that with decreasing distance to the gull colony, the mock gull eggs are protected with increased gull mobbing behavior, in lower predation rates on the eggs

Question 10

Beginning with a common ancestor, over time, across generations, species could change dramatically. Some might add new body features, others might drop them. Ultimately one type of creature could be transformed into something utterly different. It is a process Darwin Called _____

Answer 10

Descent with modification

Question 11

The researcher could present different models to the tits, including predators they are familiar with, predators they are not familiar with, and animals that would not be considered predators, and assess their different calls and behavioral responses. (NAME A COST)

Answer 11

A cost is that especially in the field, the experiment must be designed carefully to account for other variation that could be accounting for the bird’s responses instead

Question 12

The researcher could watch the Japanese tits int heir natural environment and record when a call is given, what the call is, and how the tits react (NAME A COST)

Answer 12

A cost is that the observations are all correlational and the researcher must be cautious about drawing any causal conclusions

Question 13

The researcher can use phylogeny to look at if closely related species have a similar behavioral response to predators

Answer 13

A cost to this approach is that it requires historical relationships among the species to be known

Question 14

Which example illustrates using both a proximate and ultimate level of analysis to understand a behavior?

Answer 14

Digger bees are able to smell females that have burrowed close to the surface using scent-detecting cells in their antennae; males with this ability reproduce more successfully than those without it

Question 15

The existence of workers among honeybees and other eusocial insects is considered a Darwinian puzzle because

Answer 15

these workers are largely sterile and so should be eliminated over time by natural selection

Question 16

Expectations (conclusions) is the hypothesis is true

Answer 16

Predictions

Question 17

The statement “Lemmings disperse from areas of high population density because they inherited this ability from a lemming-like ancestor in the past” is a hypothesis about

Answer 17

evolutionary history

Question 18

Cliff-nesting gulls like the black-legged kittiwake have relatively few nest predators. Although closely related to many ground-nesting gulls that do mob predators, groups of nesting adult black-legged kittiwakes do not mob predators. Using the comparative approach, this example illustrates

Answer 18

divergent evolution, as less predation on eggs and chicks provided a different selection pressure than that which originally led to the evolution of mobbing in ground-nesting gulls

Question 19

Darwin proposed that _____ must be the starting point for change in nature

Answer 19

Variation

Question 20

higher numbers of offspring compared with a male that joins a new group but does not kill any existing offspring

Answer 20

ultimate

Question 21

promotion of ovulation in the female langurs

Answer 21

proximate

Question 22

We observe variation in a population of lizard with respect to how fast individuals can run. We attempt to select for the ability to run slowly, not quickly. After six generations of selective breeding of only the slowest with the slowest, the mean running speed of the lizards has not changed. What is the appropriate conclusion based on this work?

Answer 22

The differences between the lizard in running speed in the original population were not caused by genetic differences among them

Question 23

Deceptive signaling is widespread in nature. For example, certain orchids lure pollinator wasps to them with flower petals that small like receptive female wasps. This case is a Darwinian puzzle because

Answer 23

natural selection ought to favor discriminating behavior on the part of male wasps so that they do not waste time, energy, and even sperm on orchid flowers

Question 24

Which is an example of a Darwinian puzzle?

Answer 24

If two or even 3 eggs are added to a bird’s nest, the adult birds often can rear them successfully along with their own chicks

Question 25

If female lizards with reddish throats produce more eggs than females with orangish throats, then the reddish throat is an evolved adaptation. This statement

Answer 25

is false, because females with orangish throats could still have more offspring than females with reddish throats

Question 26

“In the zebra finch, why do sons tend to sing like their fathers?”

Answer 26

General causal question

Question 27

Young adult white-crowned sparrows are motivated to match their song as closely as possible to that of their neighbors. This is an example of a(N)

Answer 27

adaptive value explanation `

Question 28

White crowned sparrows evolved from an ancestral species that possessed the capacity for song learning. This is an example of a(n)

Answer 28

explanation relating to evolutionary theory

Question 29

In European starlings, males learn to produce a complex song to attract females during breeding. Females, who do not sing, prefer to mate with males with longer songs. What can we reasonably predict about the neurophysiological differences in the male and female starling brain?

Answer 29

Nuclei involved in song production, such as the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA), will be larger in male brains than female brains

Question 30

I say that a white-crowned sparrow sings a distinctive dialect because its genes influenced how its song system was assembled, which in turn made dialect learning possible. You say that it sings the song because of the operation of the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA), which sends signals to the bird’s vocal control apparatus, the syrinx. Who is correct?

Answer 30

We both may be right because our two hypotheses offer two different proximate levels of analysis of dialect singing

Question 31

When young white crowned sparrows listen to their own species song alongside that of another species, they learn to sing their own song. However, when young white-crowned sparrows are raised alongside a tutor from another species, they will learn that tutor’s song. This occurs even if they also listen to a recording of their own species song. What does this indicate about the proximate hypothesis for the development of song and song dialect in birds?

Answer 31

The acoustic stimulus hypothesis and social interaction hypothesis are non-mutually exclusive

Question 32

The social interaction hypothesis for the development of song learning in white-crowned sparrows is best supported by which finding?

Answer 32

Young sparrows raised alongside a tutor from another species will learn that other species song, even if they also listen to a white-crowned sparrow song recording

Question 33

Males in different populations have different forms of certain genes that influence development of the song system. This is an example of a(n)

Answer 33

developmental explanation

Question 34

Research results showed that in zebra finches, the sonograms of the songs of a father and his sons reveal a close match unless a son has been deafened early in life. These results best support which hypothesis?

Answer 34

The acoustic stimulus hypothesis

Question 35

Males in different populations have song systems in their brains that operate slightly differently. This is an example of a(n)

Answer 35

physiological explanation

Question 36

Numerous studies have investigated the development of song dialects in white-crowned sparrows. Which statement correctly reflects current understanding of the contribution of genetics to these song dialects?

Answer 36

subspecies of white-crowned sparrows have distinct genetic differences across large geographic scales, but not at local scales

Question 37

Young white-crowned sparrows are remarkably good at remembering the sounds produced by adult white-crowned males singing around them. If the learning abilities of these birds evolved by Darwinian natural selection, specific conditions must have been applied to the species in the past. Which of the following statements about those conditions is incorrect?

Answer 37

Any charges that took place in the past must have promoted greater population stability in this bird

Question 38

The differences among dialects are environmentally determined, not genetically controlled. This is an examples of a(n)

Answer 38

developmental explanation

Question 39

“zebra finch males must be able to hear themselves sing (or hear their fathers sing) if they are to eventually come to sing their father’s song”

Answer 39

hypothesis `

Question 40

“If we do an experiment in which we deafen a young males, it will not be able to hear itself sing and thus should not be able to acquire a good copy of its father’s song”

Answer 40

prediction

Question 41

What is the HVC, and what role does it play in the learning process of bird song?

Answer 41

The HVC is a collection of neurons that connects with other brain elements to send messages to the sound-producing syrinx

Question 42

The bottom figure’s findings best support the proximate level hypothesis that

Answer 42

crickets use the light and dark as environmental cues to entrain their circadian rhythm