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Animal Behavior Test 2 > Economic Decision Making > Flashcards

Economic Decision Making Flashcards

1
Q

What are economic decisions?

A

Decision-making informed by an analysis of cost and benefit of the choices an individual has.
Relies on quality of available info.
Requires certian cognitive capacities of the organism.

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2
Q

Law of Diminishing Returns example

A

Y axis = currency
X axis = handling time
-X axis = search/travel time
Forage for less period of time in patches with more prey.
Forage more or spend more time in patches with less prey.

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2
Q

Prey Choice

A

Large prey are more profitable than small prey.
Prey 1 = eat
Prey 2 = eat if gain from eating is greater than gain from rejecting and searching for more profitable prey.

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3
Q

Marginal Value Theory

A

A tangent to a curve is a rate. (e.g., rate of energy)
MVT = a tangent and curve. How long must you stay in a patch so that you maximize your energy gained without wasting time and energy?

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5
Q

Prey choice models

A

E1/h1 > E2/h2
E2/h2 > E1/(S1+h1)
To find out which is more profitable/costly - you solve for search time. Solve to determine whether you should eat the prey item encountered. Quantifiable model to determine when a forager should switch from being a specialist to a generalist. Assumes organism is pretty smart - knowledge of energy, search time, prey abundance, and handling time.

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6
Q

Three predictions of prey choices

A

1) Predators should either specialize on prey 1 or generalize. (you should eat prey 1 b/c it is generally more profitable than prey 2)
2) The decision of whether to specialize depends on S1 but not S2. (once you make that decision to go after prey 2 it doesn’t matter what time it takes)
3) The shift from specializing to generalizing is sudden and occurs when the search costs for the more profitable prey exceed the gain from eating less profitable prey.

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7
Q

Sampling and information

A

The information a forager has affects the decision-making process.
Variability becomes important.
e.g., Downy woodpeckers; logs with 24 holes
When they had either 0 or 24 prey items, easy to decide where to forage.
When they had either 0 or 6, or 0 or 12 it was harder.
e.g., grocery store lines

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8
Q

Condition-dependent decisions

A

Risk of starvation.
Would you take 10 sausages a day? or 1/2 the days get 5 sausages and 1/2 the days get 20 sausages?
To determine you should ask how much do you need for any given day to survive? Choose strategy based on how close you are to starvation. If you can live on 10 per day but not 5, choose option 1. If you nee more than 10 a day go with option 2.

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9
Q

Condition-dependent decisions

A

Risk-prone - risky option
Risk-averse - dodging risk
When humans are on the edge we become more risk averse, but often times that is the time to be more risk prone.

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10
Q

Law of diminishing returns re-creation

A

There is some currency and it takes you time to gain that currency; and you will gain that currency at a diminishing rate.
Be able to recreate graph.
e.g., foraging, mating, hibernating, parental care
Idea is universal

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11
Q

The evolution of cognition

A

Food harding in organisms.
Nutcrackers = good at spatial memory but keyed to location and not other cues.
Food storing species have good spatial memory.
Food storing = neural trait = food storers have larger hippocampus.
e.g., london cabbies

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12
Q

Social learning

A

Sticklebacks

Copying, local tradition, teaching

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13
Q

Life dinner principle

A

Selection should be stronger on prey. If prey loses, it dies. If predator loses, it looses dinner. Life > dinner therefore the selection is stronger on prey. Asymmetry in strength of selection.

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14
Q

Predation sequence

A

1) Searching for prey
2) Recognition of prey
3) Catching prey
4) Handling prey

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15
Q

Predator adaptations and prey counter-adaptations

A

1) Improved visual acuity & crypsis
2) Learning & Masquerade
3) Secretive approach & Startle response
4) Subduing skills & Spines or toxins

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16
Q

Why is the red queen hypothesis descriptive of predator-prey arms races?

A

The red queen hypothesis describes the example of Alice running fast but getting no where. In the real world it would be considered a long way but not in the realm she is running in.

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17
Q

Tetrodotoxin

A

Partial charges and positive charges repel tetrodotoxin making it easy for the snake to evolve super resistance that doesn’t require a huge genetic change.

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18
Q

Predator fitness and prey phenotype

A

Refer to 4 graphs:
Prey phenotype doesn’t have that big of an effect on predator fitness in the example of crypsis b/c the prey is not harming the predator, the predator just goes hungry.

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19
Q

Disruptive coloration

A

Disrupts the natural body outline. Works better as camo b/c it blends into the environment more. e.g., moths. Disrupt edges so edges bleed into the background.

20
Q

Countershading

A

Blend in with different environments. e.g., sharks. Top is grey to blend in with bottom of the ocean, bottom is white to blend in with the light coming in the top of the ocean.

21
Q

Masquerading

A

Looks like something that its not. e.g., a moth looking like a twig.

22
Q

Aposematism

A

e.g., king snakes. Snakes are brightly banded to warn critters that its ‘venomous’ and that you shouldn’t mess with it. A warning. Batesian mimicry - mimics something that is dangerous. Brings a fitness advantage.

23
Q

Example of arms race

A

Cuckoo and host

Bats and moths

24
Q

Exploitative competition

A

Resources are distributed enough so the best way to gather them is to spend time harvesting. Don’t have to fight for access.

25
Q

Interference competition

A

Resources are aggregated enough so that it is beneficial to be faster or something. May lose time here. Have to fight for access to resource.

26
Q

The Hawk-Dove game

A

Helps us think about the evolutionary stability of contest behavior.
Contestants compete for resource with either of these strategies:
1) Hawks always fight and may injure their opponents, though in the process they risk injury to themselves.
2) Doves never engage in fights.
These represent 2 extremes in nature.

27
Q

What enhances crypsis?

A

Disruptive coloration
Countershading
Masquerading

28
Q

Why is the red queen hypothesis descriptive of a predator prey arms race?

A

It describes alice in alice and wonderland as running really far and getting no where. This exemplifies an arms race b/c both organisms are becoming better and better but no one can surpass the other.

29
Q

What are the conditions necessary for a predator prey arms race to begin?

A

Reciprocal evolution – Predators respond to prey and prey respond to predators.

30
Q

What are the conditions necessary for a predator prey arms race to continue?

A

The four conditions for natural selection:

1) More offspring are produced then can possibly survive
2) Interindividual variation exists
3) Interindividual variation is heritable
4) Interindividual variation leads to differences among individuals in their ability to survive and eat or reproduce.

31
Q

What are the ultimate results of predator prey arms races?

A

Highly effective organisms. Extreme prey phenotypes and extreme predator fitness.

32
Q

What does the hawk-dove game lead to?

A

Frequency dependent selection: outcome will be a stable equilibrium where the frequencies of hawks and doves are such that their average pay-offs are equal.

33
Q

What do organisms compete for? Which of these is defendable?

A 
Mates
Food 
Nest sites
Water 
Predator free space
Retreats/burrows
- All things listed are defendable. Not dependent on what those things are but the characteristics of those things. e.g., is it widespread or concentrated in space or time?
34
Q

Game theory

A

A way to make decisions.
Set of behavioral alternatives.
For each alternative there is a certain risk and reward.
Not just you deciding something but in light of what other individuals in your population are doing.
Risks and rewards are conditional on other strategies being utilized.
Doesn’t always work.

35
Q

Optimality theory

A

Ideal free distribution. What is most optimal?

36
Q

Game theory assumptions

A

1) Both players know the rules of the game
2) There is no possibility for retribution or reward outside the game.
3) Players make decisions rationally

37
Q

The Prisoners dilemma

A

2 men arrested for murder
Separated immediately
Men have these options:
a) neither confess - both get 5 yrs.
b) both confess - both get 25 yrs.
c) one rats out other - snitch gets 3 yrs. friend gets life.
Prisoner thinks his best strategy is to confess. Both friends think this way a.k.a. both confess and both et 25 yrs.

38
Q

Evolutionary stable strategy

A

A strategy that, if adopted by all members of the population can not be invaded by an alternative strategy. e.g., the mafia. Another example is that being all hawks or being all doves is not evolutionarily stable. A good mix is needed to be stable. Example = hawk dove game

39
Q

Game theory
Iterative games
Tit for tat strategy

A

Axelrod and the Evolution of cooperation. When you come up against a player for the first time and that player cooperates you should do whatever they do so you should cooperate as well. Outcome is mutual either way. Most evolutionary stable. As soon as they change their strategy you change yours.

40
Q

Assumptions of ideal free distribution

A

1) Individuals are free to move around (no interference competition)
2) Individuals possess complete information

41
Q

Resource defense competition

A

When organisms settle in a particular area, they tend to defend their turf.
Once the good habitat is full, others have to go to the poorer habitat.

42
Q

Strategy

A

A genetically based decision rule
Differences between strategies are due to differences in genes.
Strategies can be conditional. Differences in response thresholds.

43
Q

Tactics

A

A behavior pattern played as part of a strategy.

44
Q

Frequency dependent selection

A

The outcome will be a stable equilibrium where the frequencies of Hawks and Doves are such that their average pay-offs are equal.

45
Q

ESS for hawk dove game - possible outcomes

A

1) There is an evolutionarily stable polymorphic state, with individuals all playing pure strategies, half of them hawk and half of them dove.
2) Individuals all adopt a mixed strategy, playing hawk randomly with probability 1/2 and dove with probability 1/2.

Animal Behavior Test 2 (1 decks)

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