development reading Flashcards
what happens to songbirds if they are caged during migration?
directional migratory restlessness
Emlen’s experiment
- indigo buntings under natural sky
- indigo buntings under planetarium (rotating about pole star and betelgeuse)
- buntings raised without any sight of the sky
conclusion of Emlen’s experiment
- no stars-> unable to orientate
- stars rotating about pole-> away from pole star
- stars rotating about betelgeuse-> away from betelgeuse
- Have an innate tendency to migrate in direction opposite to the star on the axis of rotation
- learn which star is on the axis of rotation
precocial species
the young hatching occurs late in ontogeny
can normally move around and feed themselves just after hatching
altricial species
the young hatching occurs early in ontogeny
give an example of a precocial species
chickens- innately knows vocalisation
give an example of a altricial species
white- crowned sparrow- learns song while nestling
Grohmann’s experiement
- pigeons divided into 2 groups
- reared in tubes so could not move wings
- reared without restraint
- when no restrained pigeons could fly the tubed pigeons were released
- tubed pigeons could fly immediately upon release
conclusion to Grohmann’s experiement
- behaviours do not appear until a particular stage of development is reach
- some develop without obvious form of practice
what did Grohmann discover about featherless chickens
developed normal wing- flapping vestibular reflexes, even though these are completely ineffective
what are the vocalisations of pigeons and domestical fowl dependent on
certain hormonal conditions
imprinting definition
learning that takes place during a sensitive period in the early stage of an animal’s life
learning through attachment to the mother develops, less interested in other animals
sensitive period definition
period of time during which a developing animal is especially sensitive to particular types of experience
Gottlieb’s experiment
- took newly hatched mallard ducklings, separated from their mother
- followed a crude model of duck, a person, box moving away from them
what sort of species does imprinting normally occur?
precocial species
which species of finches do male zebra finches choose if they are raised by Bengalese finches?
Bengalese finches
White- crowned sparrow song experiment
Marler and Mundinger
- reared in insolation
- not exposed to song-> subsong, abnormal adult song
- exposed 10-90 days old-> normal adult song
- before 8 days old-> abnormal adult song
- after 100 days old-> abnormal adult song
- deafened before song-> abnormal adult song
- deafened during sensitive period playing song but before they sing-> normal adult song
conclusion of Marler and Mundinger’s experiment
the sensitive period for learning adult song is 10 – 90 days in white-crowned sparrows.
during the development of song they need feedback when hearing themselves sing so that they can match what they sing to a remembered ‘auditory template’.
zebra finches song experiment
- young male zebra finch listens to father and another male’s song
- his song resembles father
which learning is important at the stage of song production
action- based learning
field sparrow and singing
2 or more are sung initially and as the young bird becomes territorial the number is reduced to 1, which matches that of his most actively singing neighbour
differences between herring gull chicks and adults alarm behaviour
chicks
- move short distance from nest and crouch motionless and silent among vegetation
adults
- fly away from the nest uttering alarm calls
innate behaviour definition
behaviour that develops without obvious environmental influences
environmental factors influence the development of all behaviour to some extent
Kuo experiment
- placed windows in the eggshells to observe behaviour of the embryo
- head moved due to heart beat
- movements similar to pecking by 17th day
