evolution revision Flashcards

Question

MAOA gene and violence

Answer 1

MAOA gene varies - in no and also diff levels more child abuse - low MAOA increases antisocial more than high MAOA does both low and high MAOA have similar levels of behaviour without maltreatment in rhesus monkey, MAOA has opposite effect shows upbringing impacts behaviour

Answer 2

1. what causes the behaviour right now (mechanisms and motivation) 2. how does the behaviour develop in the individual (what processes shape) 3. what is the function or adaptive value of the behaviour (why it exists) 4. what is the evolutionary history of the behaviour across species (what species have this trait)

Answer 3

lines up with synaptic pruning we normally only acquire language once and early in our life (we can go and learn again as an adult but that is not primarily important for survival, at least not historically) trade off after acquisition we want to save metabolic costs by reducing neural tissue - would be wasting energy in adulthood

Answer 4

this where exposure to cues in early life induces a permanent change in the phenotype, e.g snail shells

Answer 5

represents the process of cellular decision-making during development uses chanelling - possible routs for dev are constrained over time may be self regulation - we compensate for shortcomings such as not driving in the rain equifinality - many dev routes to the same end

Answer 6

capacity to learn completes a gap in a genetically specified system, can promote the spread of underlying alleles if cost of learning is low learning may still be involved

Answer 7

modifying behaviour to compensate for environmental change. in general is about learning about the environment and responding adaptively

Answer 8

investigating accuracy in laughing gull chicks accuracy increased over time regardless of sight element of maturation not just learning

Answer 9

likely to interact when overlap/are not parrelel

Answer 10

contingency - how well the cs predicts the us contiguity - closeness is time of cs and us

Answer 11

positive -> reward and add something bad negative -> remove something bad, remove something good

Answer 12

make food provisions for future need - birds stored sig more of the "different" food than the "same" in each compartment relative to food in other compartment will remember what they have cached, when, where and who watched challenge bishof-kohler hypothesis - collecting on one day was controlled by the next days motivational state and daily resources

Answer 13

S - will rut, roar, parallel walk them fight - aggression motivation - hormones/season and aggression from other stag function is to increase fitness and find mate

Answer 14

a behaviour can evolve if on average c

Answer 15

benefit of extra mating is larger for a male than a female due to carrying pregnancy and the size of the gametes (females want quality > quant)

Answer 16

females choose brighter males to get more attractive sons - male brightness increases and creates payoff R A Fisher

Answer 17

limited energy to be allocated between growth, care of self, care of existing offspring, and creation of new offspring lifespan influences age of reproduction - earlier reproductive period for shorter lifespans humans are unique in having long post reproductive time

Answer 18

mother in good condition should produce high-quality offspring – more sons because females are likely to find a mate no matter their phenotypic condition

Answer 19

~150 is group number that human brain size predicts because group size leads to better predation, allowing late production and long lifespan (for bigger brains). food resources also play role

Answer 20

over 40 all underpinned by an experience that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner

Answer 21

- tinbergen's 4 qs answer this - faster than mutations - associations means that better mates are chosen - in humans, we can also unlearn problems

Answer 22

by zajonc repeated unreinforced expose is enough to enhance attitudes towards it (like attraction due to proximity)

Answer 23

mere exposure liking imprinting reversed facial image (we prefer mirror images) habitiuation (and dear enemy phenomenon) observational song learning

Answer 24

when using substances, environment becomes part of the CS response secretes NTs that counteract effects new setting - conditioned stimulus is different and the compensatory physiological conditioned response is absent or decreased

Answer 25

when a conditioned stimulus becomes associated with a new unconditioned stimulus stimulus can create a response of what it may lead to - money

Answer 26

- excitatory association: increases likelihood of response - inhibitory association: decreases likelihood of response - when activity in one area is closely followed by another - neural connects strengthen extinction occurred from a new inhibitory centre

Answer 27

determines rules of reinforcement continuous - everytime after desired behaviour interval - based on time elapsed since reinforcement ratio - based on how many responses have been made intermittent reinforcement is more resistant to extinction than continuous reinforcement

Answer 28

behaviour is modified by its consequences - we learn associations and their consequences thorndike

Answer 29

software - rules it follows hardware - neural mechanisms

Answer 30

conditioning is achieved through predictability knowledge is an intervening variable between stimulus and response in diabetes - insulin (US) decreases blood sugar (UR) but the conditioned response to the injection results in CS of more blood sugar in compensatory reaction compensatory reaction - body prepares for a unnatural stimulus to reduce effect

Answer 31

neutrality of reinforcers can find an activity that an individual prefers then use that to reinforce a non-preferred one

Answer 32

when tone and shock appeared randomly next to/at same time rats don't press the bar as fear of shock is stronger than wish for food is contingency

Answer 33

conditioning takes longer because there is already information about the tone/CS that exists, and is not a reliable predictor existing info interferes

Answer 34

rats have more suppression when have light-tone-shock condition before just light light is a blocker in tone-shock and tone-light-shock - appears redundant new associations are learned more quickly

Answer 35

deatour learning - when one route is blocked they have cog map to choose next most efficient instrumental conditioning learning without reinforcement

Answer 36

nausea was paired with sucrose solution and given 20 min extinction trial rat avoided sucrose and preferred food - experience leads to learned act-outcome association. rat combines the pull chain to nausea and deduces that pulling chain lead to sickness - cognition

Answer 37

taste is a prepared stimulus for association with illness - evolutionary elements of CC

Answer 38

can reduce driver speed learned behaviours usually not maintained once reinforcement is discontinued (glynn) over justification effect - rewards when not needed means that behaviour has inherently less motivation

Answer 39

smiles, praise touch etc variable for individuals are not universal - events are relatively reinforcing based on a number of factors however can be more effective and continue after a programme ends

Answer 40

in smoking - 2 groups with one told they were improving due to their own willpower and other was due to treatment - long term, the willpower group showed better long term improvement

Answer 41

behaviour not readily explained by associative learning

Answer 42

showed that non human apes cannot learn human language as they do not have the vocal apparatus - could make a few sounds such as mama or cup but were not english like sounds

Answer 43

SC - can discriminate videos that reflect movement with 5-7s delay MR - similar or better than humans, could discriminate natural concepts I - epstein et al used box to reach banana using insight (ps was sudden, direct, continuous)

Answer 44

idea that only humans can detach from current motivation and act for future needs

Answer 45

taught asl with human signer and moulding could sign appeals, location, action etc

Answer 46

sign meaning was ambiguous 19,000 utterances equivalent to 2-word utterances of children 18-24m struggled with linguistics like turn taking

Answer 47

can be visual, auditory or chemical (pheromones) stickleback - males attack model that imitate them (slim/swollen and red, but will court or avoid female looking)

Answer 48

- presented chick with different shapes that mimics the outline of beaks - chicks directed gaping behaviour was directed at angled beak shapes - preference for proportionate body/beaks - sign stimulus impacted the fixed action pattern

Answer 49

RS - number of decedents left by indvidual F - strictly a property of an allele. It is the change in frequency of an allele over the generations. related to average RS RR - when food is scarce, birds lay less eggs because it would create too much competition. assumes altruism - but in reality being selfish and still laying as many eggs as possible is more effective

Answer 50

behaviour that once common in a population cannot be out-competed by any alternative behaviour

Answer 51

PD - when offspring are present - the most alarm calling closely followed when siblings or parents are present C- cells such as blood, nerve, heart or small intestine cells will never have full reproduction, however will continue to work in order to allow reproduction with gametes

Answer 52

suppressing competition between genes arises when genes favour own interest over bigger picture transposable elements in humans - jumping genes that move to different segments, can help us survive and adapt but should not always be used

Answer 53

I - 50/50 energy, A - unequal gamete size, usually females (more energy for equal genome) . applies in cases of sequential (changing sex) or simultaneous hermaphroditism

Answer 54

have male and female gametes in separate individuals

Answer 55

john maynard smith the cost of sexual reproduction asexual females will have both more children and viable grandchildren with all genes many animals still take part in anisogamy bc recombining genetics gives more adaptability and change, red queen hypoth

Answer 56

"takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place" keep adapting and changin to fight off parasites - they will always evolve and become stronger bananas - sexually reproducing ones better and surviving parasites evolve to keep up with snails and snails live better when cohabitating

Answer 57

intra - same sex seals invest in size to compete with men and win females peak reproduction - men are 3x more likely to die (nore risk taking and aggression) inter - other sex peacocks -tail cost/flying swallows - prefer males with artificially longer tails - have less mites in nest

Answer 58

S is aging - accumulation of unrepaired damage to body extrinsic mort - sets pace of life history, faster when death rate is high DS h - energy is a limited resource we use bc of EXM, organisms senesce but are capable of reproduction in earlier life

Answer 59

more children you have - harder it is to feed and care have to balance output again own and child survival

Answer 60

paternity uncertainty - males invest more in children that look like them chimaeras - offspring is a mix of different mates so more paternal care (% DNA) stepfathers have much higher rate of killing children - are less attached

Answer 61

most important - sharing food/resources diseases predator detection

Answer 62

asocial - promiscuity monogamy - 1 + 1 polygyny - one male several females polyandry - one female multiple males multiple males multiple females has various systems

Answer 63

monogamous pairs have larger brains (watching each other) monkeys and apes have larger neocortex when increasing group size larger groups = more predation = larger brains

Answer 64

we are ultrasocial monogamy and polygyny wives move to husbands family - virilocality husbands move - uxorilocality

Answer 65

behaviour benefits another individual but is detrimental to the actor evolves when the two involved are related - by helping you are letting genes live on

Answer 66

d- tit for tat, actor cost < recipient benefit. increases probability of repetition - but need to keep interacting and recognise i - A helps B, C then helps A. control mechanism is reputation . actor cost < recipient benefit X probability of correct info about partners rep

Answer 67

social learning can produce cultural traditions - bird songs/washing food cultural vestigial characteristics - previously useful but maintaining founder effect - first and stayed

Answer 68

humans heavily rely on social learning only human cultural traditions are cumulative

Answer 69

carl linneus genus, then species to classify animals and understand offspring

Answer 70

similar species may successfully breed with each other but cannot reproduce with other wide of ring - differences to large

Answer 71

M - group of organisms that are classified in the same taxon and share a most common recent ancestor - not strictly valid p - group of animals which contains a common ancestor and some, but not all, of the descendants.

Answer 72

elements that mammals can share will split at different parts - best seen on phylogeny trees

Answer 73

great apes: orangutans, chimps, gorillas and humans african apes: chimpanzees, gorillas, humans also have lesser apes and gibbons we originated from hominins

Answer 74

mostly replacements, some admixture did NOT come from chimps - we split from chimp vs hominins bipedalism - pelvis structure allowing running and walking on 2 legs meat eating - nutrient density brain size tool use life history learning niche (social learning and long childhood)

Answer 75

human behaviour has a mismatch hypothesis - behaviour is adaptive only when environment is still similar assumes our behaviour is determined and has low phenotypic flexibility in reality which are much more plastic

Answer 76

difference between populations are evoked culture we have fast and plastic adaptation

Answer 77

behaviours determined by cultural norms and social learning norms are adaptive to environment

Answer 78

theoretical approach focusing on the relationship between phenotype and fitness in evolutionary processes

Answer 79

H - passing on characteristics R - extra genetic material that can perform the same function as another gene FD - presenting two answers when 2+ exist

Answer 80

neurons that wire together fire together

Answer 81

predictable series of actions triggered by a cue, sometimes called the key stimulus