Comparative Flashcards
Give 2 features of same method/task comparisons.
They are suitable for closely related species and species-specific adaptations make its applicability difficult.
Give 2 features of different method/task comparisons.
They have greater phylogenic applicability but low comparability.
Give 3 features of functionally equivalent method/task comparisons.
There are problems in dining functionally equivalent tasks, they have greater phylogenic applicability and allow test batteries on particular topics.
Give an advantage and a disadvantage of using functionally equivalent ages in comparisons.
Advantage: Adapted to the species being compared.
Disadvantage: Rules of thumb are not always right.
Give the 4 key words in Tinbergen’s four questions.
Mechanism, function, phylogeny and ontogeny.
An animal’s key function is to (______), through (genetic/endocrinological) control.
Survive and reproduce, genetic.
An animal’s key mechanism is to (______), through (genetic/endocrinological) control.
Seek pleasure and avoid pain, endrocinological.
Describe fission-fusion groups.
They vary in spatial cohesion and individual membership in subgroups, and groups are rarely all together.
On inhibitory control tasks, what is sometimes a better predictor of performance than phylogeny?
Sociality.
What 3 characteristics do polygamous males usually have, in comparison to monogamous males and females?
Larger home range, better spatial abilities and larger hippocampal volume.
What 2 characteristics do food storing birds usually have, in comparison to non-food storing birds?
Better spatial abilities and larger hippocampal volume.
What 3 characteristics do females which carry out brood parasitism usually have, in comparison to males?
Can keep track of multiple nest sites, better spatial abilities and larger hippocampal volume.
Which timing style allows animals to use short arbitrary durations to perform actions for specific periods, etc.?
Interval timing.
Which timing style allows animals to use short the tidal cycle, the light-dark cycle or seasons to keep time?
Circadian rhythms.
Define circadian rhythms.
Endogenous timing mechanisms that predict changes in the environment and synchronise physiology and behaviour accordingly.
Describe cropping.
Visiting food sources at or close to the moment of replenishment.
Define navigation.
An animal’s ability to male it’s way to a desired location.
Define homing.
The specific use of navigation to return home.
Define migration.
Seasonal movement of animals from one region to another.
Define path integration.
The ability to directly return to a starting point after visiting several locations without the aid of external cues.
What input signals do invertebrates use in path integration?
Number of steps and optic flow.
What input signals do vertebrates use in path integration?
Vestibular system, optic flow, proprioception and motor commands.
Define compasses.
The ability to use planetary and/or exo-planetary cues to efficiently move from one location to another.
Define landmarks.
An object or gradient in the environment that aids an individual to a navigate to a particular location.
Give 2 types of beacon landmarks.
Odour and social.
Give 3 types of en route landmarks.
Serial beaconing, landmarks bearings and following a landmark.
Give 3 types of position fixing landmarks.
View matching, vectors and relative distance.
In a rectangular room with food in one corner, why do rats and toddlers go to the diagonal opposite corner?
They use geometric cues in navigation.
Give 3 factors that could help adult humans overcome the geometric module of navigation.
Executive function, hippocampal development and experience.
Describe the bi-coordinate map.
Direction from one point.
Describe the mosaic map.
Direction from multiple points.
Describe the network map.
All known routes between locations.
Describe the Euclidean cognitive map.
Distance and direction from all known sites.
Which method of planning and inference helps animals travel efficiently between locations.
Least distance strategies.
Which method of planning and inference helps animals travel efficiently to new locations.
Detours and shortcuts.
Define adaptive specialisations.
Traits that are tailored to the current ecological niche occupied by a species.
Give 2 morphological specialisations New Caledonian Crows have for tool use.
Beak shape and forward vision.
What is the term for when an organism’s adaptations mean it can succeed in more than own niche?
Flexibility.
Define trial-and-error problem solving.
The gradual acquisition of a new response following a series of unsystematic and varied attempts.
Define insight in problem solving.
“The sudden production of a new adaptive response not arrived at by trial behaviour, but by the sudden adaptive reorganisation of experience.”
Define reasoning in problem solving.
Coming perceived with imagines events or associating spatio-temporally separate events.
Define planning.
“The cognitive process implicated in the formulation, evaluation and selection of a sequence of thoughts and/or actions to achieve a desired goal.”
What process is associated with the mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex and interrupted by injury of the cortico-striatal pathway?
Planning.
Define innovation.
“The invention of a new behaviour pattern or modification of a previously learned one in a novel context.”
In Reader and Laland’s (2002) study, how did executive brain ratio affect innovation and social learning.
Increased executive brain ratio increased both.
Describe the life-dinner principle.
For predators, only dinner is stake, but for prey life is at stake.
Describe genetic preference/predisposition in prey selection.
Preference for a particular type of prey.
Describe individual learning in prey selection.
Sampling new items.
Describe social learning in prey selection.
Learning to eat what others eat.
