Exam 1 Flashcards
What is V.C. Wynne Edwards known for?
Group selection
What is Niko Tinbergen know for?
Nesting digger wasps
Four questions about behavior
Developed hierarchical scheme for studying behavior
What is B.F. Skinner known for?
Operant Conditioning
What is Karl von Frisch known for?
UV light perception in bees
Decoded the dance language of honeybees
Developed the idea of sensory worlds
What is a fixed action pattern?
a behavior that, once initiated, goes to completion
What is sexual imprinting?
A form of learned mate preference for a trait that an individual has observed in its population
What are ultimate questions?
Why questions
What are Proximate questions
How questions
What type of scientists use Ultimate questions?
Behavioral ecology + Sociobiology
What type of scientists use proximate questions?
Ethology + Comparative Psychology
What does estrous mean?
physiological period with no blood
What does estrus mean?
sexually responsive + willing to mate with a male
Tim Caro was able to show that stotting in gazelles is most likely explained by the:
Advertisement of unprofitability hypothesis
What is an ethogram?
simple description of everything (list)
What is the most basic form of observation?
Ethogram
What is scan sampling?
taking a group of organisms and every five minutes write what all the subjects did and repeat
What is focal animal sampling?
following one animal in particular
Evolution must occur if the environment has all three of these things:
Variation
Heredity
Differential reproduction
Evolution is _____________, not linear
branching
differential reproduction may be the consequence of:
Male/male competition
female choice
natural selection
What is Lorenz known for?
Fixed action patterns
Releasers
Innate Releasing mechanism (IRM)
“imprinting” in geese
What is a releaser?
“sign” stimulus used in communication
What is an internal releasing mechanism? (IRM)?
internal “mechanism” for initiating behavior
What was comparative psychologists emphasis?
Learned behavior observed in laboratory
What was E.L. Thorndike known for?
Developed trial and error learning
What is the law of effect?
rewarded behavior will be repeated
What was Pavlov known for?
Classical conditioning
Behavior is neither entirely _____________ or entirely _______________ its a mixture of both
learned
innate
Phenotypes can be influenced by
genotype and environment
What is the purpose of R. Dawkins cake analogy?
A small difference in a cake recipe is not the sole reason a cake ends up tasting bad. However, a small difference in a recipe for DNA can produce important differences in expression of the behavior
How do we determine if the genes or the environment is influencing behavior?
Can “fix” environment in laboratory (identical lab conditions)
Can “fix” genotype by using twin studies or Inbreeding
Genetics can influence ______________ but ____________ can influence the expression of the gene but not the ___________________
behavior
behavior
genetic make up
What is an immediate early gene?
a gene that codes for proteins that control the expression of other genes
Experiments to test for the effects of genotype on behavior:
Inbreeding
Hybridization
Artificial selection
Genetic transformation
What is Inbreeding?
- Experiment that minimizes genetic diversity by creating genetically identical individuals
- Any difference in behavior in different environments are due to environmental effects (not genetic)
What is hybridization?
- When the behavior of the individual depends on the # of genes shared between parent and offspring
- Small number of genes = intermediate or like one parent
- Large number of genes = behavior likely to be intermediate
____________ produces change the quickest
Artificial Selection
What type of selection created the fastest level of speciation?
Disruptive selection –> has a bimodal distribution
What is an example of Artificial Selection?
Canary’s being breaded to sing a lower frequency of songs.
What are knockout genes?
genes that produce mutants that are homozygous for inactive genes
What is a genetic mosaic?
an organism with more than one genome (results from gene transfer)
Mice with an inactive fosB gene fail to:
Nurture offspring appropriately
no ___________ are gynandromorphs because of _____________
mammals
hormones
What determines how gynandromorph flies turn out?
Depends on cell division and early cell embryo division
What is a polygenic trait?
several genes that produce one effect
What is a pleiotropic trait?
one gene that produces several effects
Phenotypic distribution will be continuous if:
- alleles at each locus and different loci influence a trait by adding small increments
- Three or more loci contribute to the phenotype
- net environmental effect = 0
What is an example of a pleiotropic trait?
Yellow mutant in fruit flies (single gene on X chromosome)
What is an example of a two gene trait?
honeybee “hygiene –> workers cleaning hive of dead larvae
What is an example of a single cell trait?
fosB gene in mice
per gene in fruit flies
What is a hormone?
substances secreted in one part of the body that cause changes in other parts of the body
What are interventional methods of studying hormone-behavior relationships?
- Removal of endocrine gland
- Hormone replacement therapy
- Excess hormone provision
- Using Agonist/Antagonists
- Blood transfusions
- Genetic knockouts
What are correlation methods of studying hormone-behavior relationships?
- Bioassays
- Radioimmunoassay (RIA)/enzymne-linked immunoasorbment assays (ELISA)
- Audoradiography
What is an example of Bioassay?
Taking pictures of birds that have a yellow bill and the brightness of males bill correlates to how much testosterone the bird has
What are the major types of hormones?
Peptide
Steroid
Monoamine
___________ hormones have a short half life and act quickly
Peptide
___________ hormones have a long half life and act slowly
Steroid
What is an organizational effect?
hormonal influences during early development
Organizational effects are ___________
Permanent
What are activation effects?
hormonal influences later in life
What does transient mean?
Only happen when hormones are present and are not active if hormones are not present.
Activation effects are ________________
Transient
You need ______________ and ______________ in order for behavior to occur
Organizational effect
Activation effect
What are the three patterns of hormonal interaction with the environment?
Associated
Dissociated
Constant
Inside of the cell is ____________ charged
negatively
Disturbing the membrane leads to ___________
depolarization
What does a small depolarization equate to?
graded potential
What does a large depolarization equate to?
action potential
Action potential is a _______________ event
all or nothing
How do invertebrates reduce resistance to action potential?
increasing the diameter
How do vertebrates reduce resistance to action potential?
myelin sheaths > causes impulse to jump along axon
What are synapses?
junctions between nerve cells
What are the characteristics of electrical nerve cell transfer?
direct physical contact
bidirectional (can go both ways)
What are the characteristics of chemical nerve cell transfer?
no direct physical contact
unidirectional
diffuses neurotransmitters into synaptic cleft and neurotransmitters bind to a receptor
What is an afferent pathway?
coming in > ascended towards the CNS (usually sensory)
What is an efferent pathway?
going out > descending away from the CNS (usually motor)
What are the parts of the vertebrate brain anatomy?
Telencephalon
Diencephalon
Mesencephalon
Metencephalon
Myelencephalon
What are the different types of sensory receptors?
Chemoreceptors
Mechanoreceptors
Photoreceptors
Electroreceptors
Thermoreceptors
Electroreceptors are mostly found in _______________
aquatic animals
What is a receptive field?
totality of inputs a field gets from its sensory cells
What are the two types of response patterns?
Tonic
Phasic
__________ response pattern is continuous activity
Tonic
___________ response pattern responds to change in stimulus
Phasic
What is features extraction?
pulling out a piece of information that isn’t there in the original stimulus
What are the three ways the nervous system encodes information?
Intensity (population) code
Place code
Frequency code
What is an intensity (population) code?
number of cells excited (proportional to strength of stimulus)
What is a place code?
where on the receptor field you excite
What is frequency code?
rate of spikes proportional to strength of stimulus
What are the causes of behavioral change during development?
development of the nervous system
hormonal development
changes in non-neural morphology
play behavior
What is an example of play behavior?
young rams charging in a playful manner vs mature rams charging in an aggressive manner
What are the functions of song?
territory defense
mate attraction
physiological?
in temperate environments __________ birds sing
male
in tropical environments __________ birds sing
male and female
What are two examples of birds that have complex calls?
Chickadees
owls
Calls are _________
simple
Songs are _________
complex
Why is song learning important?
-Mechanism for transmission of complex information
- allows social adaptation
- allows genetic adaptation
- allows adaptation to the habitat
Female birds are _________
hetereogametic (ZW)
Male birds are _______
homogametic (ZZ)
birds have to produce ___________ in body to respond to stimulus in the environment
testosterone
What is the sensitive phase in birds?
The early period in life during which song is memorized
What does bird song development depend on?
species
individual
method of sound presentation
hormone levels
live tutors for song learning ____________ sensitive phase vs a recording in a lab
extends
What is the sensorimotor (motor) phase in birds?
period during which bird begins to produce song
occurs immediately after sensitive phase
What are the three stages of motor production in birds?
subsong
plastic song
crystallized song
What is the subsong in birds?
soft, unstructured, and random
What is the plastic song in birds?
correct elements of a song but still somewhat unstructured
What is the crystallized song in birds?
final adult song
What happens to the bird song when the bird is isolated from the environment?
song is abnormal
What happens to the bird song when the bird is deafened after “crystallization” song?
there is no noticeable effect on song
What happens to the bird song when the bird is deafened after sensitive phase but before motor phase?
songs have some species-like elements or patters
What happens to the bird song when the bird is deafened before sensitive phase?
nothing appropriate
What are Niko Tinbergen’s four questions about behavior?
Causation
Development
Evolution
Function
What is a matched filter?
another type of feature extraction
What is age polytheism?
many behaviors over many ages
What are examples of an innate behavior?
Classical ethological behaviors
Mate recognition signals
Predator avoidance behavior
What is habituation?
learning not to show a characteristic response
