Exam 1 Flashcards
1
Q
Motors that control behavior
A
- The dendrites of the neuron detect mechanical, electrical, or chemical stimulation
- Rapid depolarization along the axon causes an action potential to propagate the signal rapidly to the next neuron (an individual nerve cell)
- > primarily dendrites which receive signals from other cells which causes a depolarization of the neuron which causes a rapid release of neurotransmitters from the axon terminals
2
Q
Pre-historical humans influence on studying animal behavior
A
- animal behavior dates back to pre-historical humans
- hunter and gatherers had to act like ethologists in order to understand the prey and predators they were trying to catch
- animal behavior was so fundamental to human existence it was depicted on cave paintings that showed animals performing behaviors
3
Q
Ivan Pavlov
A
- historical foundation in comparative physiology when considering animal behavior and the field of behavioral ecology
- Russian physiologist
- first developed Pavlovian (classical) conditioning
4
Q
Phenotypic plasticity
A
- The ability of single genotype to express different phenotypes in different environments
- the ability to behaviorally respond to the same circumstances in different ways
- > result of learning, experience triggers a different response
5
Q
Gene flow
A
- very fast change of a population
- the movement of individuals from one pop to another that changes the frequency, or number of different alleles
- slows down differentiation and process of speciation
- > keeps species unified bc moving back together by migrants
6
Q
Behavioral Plasticity
A
- the variation of behavior that occurs when in a different environment
Ex: females lay eggs earlier with each warmer year because their main food source are emerging earlier
7
Q
Mutation and Genetic Drift
A
- > slow evolutionary changes
1. Equilibrium - there is no change in allele frequency
- > what HWE predicts
2. Mutation - have a new trait by a random change in the alleles
- can lead to rapid speciation
3. Genetic Drift - random loss of allele
- no environmental component
- matters most when populations are small, if very large genetic drift is negligible
8
Q
Genotype
A
- The genetic constitution of an individual
- may refer to the alleles of one gene possessed by the individual or to its complete set of genes
9
Q
Natural selection example in Hawaiin crickets
A
- showed how natural selection operates on animal behavior in the wild
- male crickets sing to attract females, but this song was also attracting parasites that would kill the offspring
- eventually flatwinged male crickets that could not produce songs evolved and found reproductive success by gravitating towards males who could
- eventually this mutation prevailed and most males are now flatwing males
10
Q
Gene
A
- is the location on the DNA strand that codes for a particular trait
11
Q
Different approaches to ethology
A
- Empirical approach
- tinbergen’s sign stimulus experiments (modify one trait at a time and see how influences behavior) - Conceptual Approach
- Darwin’s theory of evolution by means of natural selection - Theoretical approach
- Charnov’s marginal value theorem
12
Q
In what case is there no evolution, or response to selection?
A
- if you have strong selection(s), but no heritability (h^2)
- if you have strong heritability, but no selection
- > WILL SEE NO EVOLUTION
13
Q
Candidate gene
A
- any gene that has been identified in one organism that is hypothesized to influence a similar phenotype in another organism
14
Q
Lloyd Morgan
A
- historical foundation in comparative psychology when considering animal behavior and the field of behavioral ecology
- British psychologist
- Morgan’s canon
- > give the simplest level of explanation to animal behavior without using higher levels of cognitive thinking
- Operant conditioning
- > learning by investigation and seeing how animals can adjust behaviors if given a task
15
Q
Innate Releasing Mechanism (IRM)
A
- “A special (hypothetical) neurosensory mechanism that releases the reaction and is responsible for its selective susceptibility to a very special combination of sign stimuli”
- > Tinbergen
16
Q
What did historical comparative psychologists focus on?
A
- Historically, comparative psychologists focused on mechanistic causal explanations of plastic behaviors
- > plastic behaviors are ones that can be changed based on environmental conditions
- such as operant (instrumental) conditioning, Morgan’s canon, behaviorism, and Tabula Rasa
17
Q
Nature vs Nurture in Ethology
A
- thought animal behavior was due to natural selection and that nature made them that way
1. Causation
2. Instinct Theory
3. Field observations
4. Related Species
5. Anthropomorphism - assigning human characteristics to non-human things
6. Europeans
18
Q
Fitness
A
- A measure of the increased survival or reproduction within a generation conferred by having a particular trait
- Fitness is relative to the alternative traits in the same population
19
Q
HWE equation if you know genotype(2 letters) frequencies
A
- Calculate the allele frequencies
- take the frequency of homozygote (AA) and add to 1/2 frequency of heterozygote (Aa)
- > AA+ (Aa/2) - Calculate the expected genotype frequencies
- use HWE
- (A^2 + 2Aa + a^2)
- > plug in do not add to each other to find each individual AA, Aa and aa
- > if observed genotype frequencies are not equal to expected than traits show evidence of evolution (not in HWE equilibrium)
20
Q
What is the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of the zig-zag dance behavior? (Evolution)
A
- dance is shared by five species, but dance and color are a unique combination of traits
- > zig-zag dance arose first, and then red body color arose to distinguish different species
- > females following males to the nest began even before zig-zag dance
- > phylogenetic method to determine
21
Q
When does learning confer a fitness advantage?
A
- when you have a high lifetime predictability and a low between generation predictability
22
Q
Phenotype
A
- Any measurable aspect of an individual that arises from an interaction of the individual’s genes with its environment
23
Q
Response to selection equation
A
- R = h^2*s
- h^2=R/S
- > evolutionary response (R) is mean trait differences between generations (R=x2-x0) and plug R and S into (h^2= R/S)
- h2 = heritability (0.0-1.0)
- > Can be estimated by the slope of the relationship between the offspring trait and the mid-parent trait
- > 0.5 is considered high heritability
- > 0.25 most behaviors have heritability less than this
- s = selection differential (0-1)
- > Can be estimated by the difference in variant fitness.
- > the trait differences among variants within a generation (s=x1-x0)
24
Q
How do male sticklebacks acquire the zig-zag dance behavior? (Ontogeny)
A
- once the male matures, the nest is built, and a female is present
- instinct rather than learned (naturally acquired in development)
- > when male is preparing to mate hormone levels peak, and red color is not present
- > hormone levels drop post-mating and red color appears
25
Q
Behavioral ecology is the interpretation of five historical foundations or fields
A
- behaviors are modified by genes and experiences
- behavioral ecology has two mature axis: nature vs nurture and proximate vs ultimate
- > every behavior has a nurture component influenced by development and a nature component influenced by genes (not a valid argument that can be divided here)
- > proximate (mechanics making a behavior occur) and ultimate causation (what is the survival value)
- > this is what actually divides
1. Ethology
2. Comparative Psychology
3. Comparative Physiology
4. Evolutionary Biology
5. Nature vs Nurture - arose from disagreements between ethology and psychology
- > Lorenz (ethologist) butted heads with a British psychologist over animal behavior
26
Q
Three foundations of behavior
A
- Natural selection
- Individual learning
- Cultural transmission
27
Q
What mechanisms cause the behavior of the zig-zag dance in male sticklebacks? (causation)
A
- the female’s body color,
posture (head up) and girth (females that have eggs) elicit the zig-zag dance in males
28
Q
Constraints on learning
A
- pathways in our brain tell us what to learn
- how we perceive the information influence whether we can learn or not
Ex: rats can associate taste with nausea, but not electric shock with nausea - imprinting
-> found in animals with extensive parental care
-> mechanism of kin discrimination (if it was not family, it would have eaten me mindset)
-> has limited sensitive period to avoid improper behaviors
-> peak window in learning to imprint on mom, max locomotive ability and minimum fear
29
Q
Neurohormone (neurotransmitter)
A
- Chemical messengers that travel via extracellular fluids to specific receptors on adjacent cell membranes
30
Q
Songbirds methods of learning songs
A
- closed vs open-ended learning
- > some need to learn during sensitive period, then learning no longer occurs
- > other birds learn songs over a lifetime (open ended learners)
- repertoire size
- > if mate can only sing one song vs many songs (many songs is attractive to females because good cognitive ability)
- develop their song by:
- > imitation (hear a song and sing it back just the way they heard it)
- > improvisation (get elements, but they vary)
- > invention (do not follow structure at all and create brand new song)
- external(have to learn it from scratch) vs internal(innate-do not need to hear song) song models
- > genetics vs learned
- selective song learning vs mimicry (sound like a different species)
- shows that learning is instinctive, but exposure can also affect (both nature and nurture applies)
31
Q
Tabula Rasa
A
- Literally, a “blank slate” or state of the mind of an organism at birth under the theory of behaviorism.
32
Q
Fitzpatrick: Candidate genes for behavioral ecology
A
- In spite of millions of years of evolutionary divergence,
the conservation of gene function is common across
distant lineages - genes that are known to
influence behavior in one organism are likely to
influence similar behaviors in other organisms - Changes in the expression of candidate genes can reveal their contribution to behavioral variation and/or phenotypic plasticity
-> Candidate genes are ‘nominated’ by knowledge of how they influence
similar behaviors in other organisms. - Recent use of candidate genes has expanded our understanding of evolutionary adaptation and behavior
in organisms that are, for the most part, not known for extensive genetic experimentation - The CGA, in concert with genomics and QTL mapping, provides an accessible and useful tool for providing a detailed understanding of the role of genes in behavioral ecology
33
Q
HWE equation if you know the allele frequencies
A
- Equation is (A^2 + 2Aa + a^2)
- if you know allele(one letter) frequencies you can calculate genotype frequencies
- > just plug in
34
Q
Evolution
A
- A change in frequency of a trait over multiple generations
- These changes may be due to selection (natural, sexual, kin) or by chance events (genetic drift, gene flow, mutation)
- > occurs across generations
35
Q
Natural Selection
A
- The process at the heart of Darwin’s theory of evolution
- the force that operates within a generation that determines who reproduces and who does not
- Individuals within a species have variation in their morphology, physiology and behaviors
- Some of this variation is heritable as offspring tend to resemble their parents
- More offspring are born than can survive, so there must be competition for resources
- Those variants that do best in the environment will leave behind more offspring
- Divergence of variants due to changes in the environment can lead to new species
36
Q
Non-genetically acquired information
A
- personal information if someone is watching will move into social information/public knowledge
- location cues can figure out where resources are by watching someone else get them
- inadvertent information by the performance (public information is performance of the information producers)
- Public information can lead to cultural evolution which we suggest may then affect biological evolution
- from these get culture, intentional and unintentional information gathered from social groups
- > reputation as to whether or not you would be worth following
37
Q
Evolution by Natural Selection
A
Three components
1. variations between individuals in a population
2.
BEETLE EXAMPLE
- more beetles are born than can survive
- > within first generation, not all beetles can survive
- beetles vary in phenotype (a product of genotype and the environment, IOW what makes an individual successful could be their genes or the environment)
- > need populations with individuals that have distinct differences
- some phenotypes survive better than others in particular environments, not because either is better but because one is more fitted (natural selection)
- > this results in a change in trait frequency across generations (evolution)
- > results in some phenotypes disappearing and others prevailing
- the spotless beetle phenotype has a higher fitness, and therefore is an adaptation
- > fitness is the relative measure of how many phenotypes are left behind
- > adaptation is the new phenotypes that form
38
Q
Activity patterns in Biological clocks
A
- Period
- length of time from the beginning of one cycle to the beginning of the next - Free running cycle
- cycle that changes in onset without appropriate environmental cues
- normal amount of activity we show in the absence of an environmental cue (23-25 hrs)
- > allow you to adjust clock with seasons (light/dark patterns change) - Entrained
- cycle that is reset daily by some environmental cue
39
Q
Tinbergen’s Paper Summary: The Curious Behavior of the Stickleback
A
- stickle backs are good for studying innate (Instinctive) behavior aka Proximate causations
- > proximate causations
- studied courtship and reproductive behavior
- > found it was instinctive and automatic
- male finds and protects territory for a period time regardless of whether they have available resources to mate bc instinctive, builds nest, piles in weeds and sticky substance from kidneys, makes tunnel by burrowing through, becomes colorful to court female when ready to mate
- females have girth (full of eggs), body color and when ready to mate will approach male with head up posture
- when female is in the males territory it will zig-zag dance to get the male to follow them to the nest
- male burrows into the nest, female goes through after and male nudges their tail to induce egg laying
- male then swims through to fertilize eggs and chases female away to find (3-5 more mates)
- eventually red color in male will go away so it can perform maternal behavior
- males will attack red males that enter the territory more aggressively than other species of fish
- > in an experiment put diff color fish in a tank and the male only reacted to the red model, same with morphology- put diff shaped models in and males tried to court the one with a distended stomach like a female
- females had similar behavior in that they would follow red models to a nest in the ground
- > they were able to be induced into spawning by being nudged with a glass rod even after the red model was removed
- > concluded that females responded to a sign stimulus (a few characteristics rather than the object as a whole- the redness of the fish counts, not the fish itself)
- in non-mating season the object was ignored
- > also concluded that animals participate in “plastic behaviors” with an innate bases
40
Q
Gould and Lewanton: a critique of adaptationist program
A
- the rewards of abandoning specific focus on the adaptationist program are very great
- they say that adaptionist program has faith in the power of natural selection as an optimizing agent
- > precedes by breaking an organism into unitary traits and proposing an adaptive story for each considered separately
- want to use Darwin’s pluralistic approach to identify the agents of evolutionary change
- competing approach that organisms must be evaluated as integrated wholes using pathways of development, phylogenies etc
- fault program for current utility from reasons of origin (bs doesn’t explain why)
- used biological and non-biological examples
41
Q
Mendel’s Rules of Inheritance
A
- Law of segregation
- alleles at the same genetic locus will segregate into separate gametes - Law of independent assortment
- alleles at different genetic loci will show independent assortment, unless genetically linked
42
Q
Karl von Frisch
A
- historical foundation in comparative physiology when considering animal behavior and the field of behavioral ecology
- Austria physiologist
- Honeybee waggle dance
- > can communicate direction and distance to collect honey
43
Q
Four aims of behavioral ecology
A
- Tinbergen’s four questions
-> all four must be met to describe behavior
1. How do animals behave (proximate analysis- immediate causes) - what causes the behavior and how it occurs
A. Mechanistic (causation)
-> what stimuli elicit behavior
B. developmental (acquisition)
-> Ontogeny, or how does behavior change through maturation
2. Why do animals behave (ultimate analysis-evolutionary forces) - describes survival value
C. survival value (adaptive significance)
-> why its been persistent through time (reproductive success and survival)
D. evolutionary history (phylogenetic/evolution)
-> what in history caused this behavior
44
Q
Axons
A
- The body of the neuron
- Nerve cell fibers that transmit electrical information from one nerve cell to another
45
Q
Grant and Grant: Synergism of Natural Selection and Introgression in the Origin of a New Species
A
- explores how introgressive hybridization enhances the evolutionary effects of natural selection and how, reciprocally, natural selection can enhance the evolutionary effects of introgression
- Variation is enhanced by mutation and altered, and sometimes reduced,
by selection and by random drift. - to assess the role of selection and hybridization at the beginning of speciation
- We conclude by noting that the speciation we have described does not conform to existing speciation theories.
- It has elements of allopatric, sympatric, founder effect and
ecological speciation while not being fully accounted for
by any one of them - The key ingredient appears to be introgressive hybridization on one
island leading to reproductive isolation from the parental
species on another
46
Q
Reflex
A
- A simple stimulus response connection believed to be unlearned and characteristic of a species
- mechanical, not learned
- Reflexes are usually favored when inappropriate behavior is costly
- Even reflexes can change with repeated exposure to stimuli
47
Q
What is the survival value (adaptive significance) of the zig-zag dance behavior? (Function)
A
- females prefer to mate with males that zig-zag dance and are red in color of those that do not
48
Q
Artificial selection
A
- A process that is identical with natural selection, except that humans control the reproductive success of alternative types within the selected population
- variation among individual phenotypes
- some of this variation is heritable (offspring look like their parents)
- individuals with the desired traits are bred to produce the next generation
- Result is that more individuals will have the desired trait in each generation
