Exam 1 Answers

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT a prediction of the hypothesis that infanticide in lions is part of a male mating strategy?

Answer 1

Infanticide will be rare

Question 2

In her study of Hawaiian crickets, Dr. Marlene Zuk found that most of the males in one population:

Answer 2

Had evolved to be quiet and relied on the few males who were still making mating calls to gain access to females.

Question 3

Behavior can evolve.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In the study of learning in locusts, researchers found that the insects learned more quickly when the nutritious food was randomly paired with color and odor cues than when it was paired consistently with the same ones.

Answer 4

False

Question 5

Proximate analyses of behavior (“how?” questions) investigate the _________ and ___________ of a behavior. Ultimate analyses of behavior (“why?” questions) investigate the ___________ and ___________ of a behavior

Answer 5

Mechanism/Development; Survival Value/Evolutionary History

Question 6

When investigating the red dot pecking behavior of young herring gulls, asking whether red triggers a neuronal response that other colors don’t is an example of an analysis of the ___________ of the behavior

Answer 6

Mechanism

Question 7

When investigating the red dot pecking behavior of young herring gulls, asking whether individuals with a strong response to red are less likely to die is an example of an analysis of the ___________ of the behavior.

Answer 7

Survival Value

Question 8

Natural selection is best described as:

Answer 8

a process by which traits that increase fitness and that are heritable increase over generations

Question 9

Optimal Foraging Theory is an example of the __________________ approach to the study of animal behavior.

Answer 9

Theoretical

Question 10

Which of the following best describes the empirical approach to ethology?

Answer 10

Observe animal behavior in a natural setting to uncover interesting trends and use controls or manipulations to determine causality.

Question 11

A trait confers the individuals that have it a 20% fitness benefit compared to individuals without it. At a population size of 100 individuals, this means that it will take 50 generations for the trait to become fixed (i.e. be present in all of the individuals in the population). If the generation time of this species is 5 years, this means the trait will become fixed in:

Answer 11

250 years

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT required for the process of evolution by natural selection to act on a trait?

Answer 12

The trait must be related to reproduction

Question 13

The fact that the rate of evolution of a species is tied to its generation length means that species with shorter generation times will evolve faster than species with longer generation times.

Answer 13

True

Question 14

In a study on naked mole rats, the following data addressed the relationship between genetic relatedness and cooperation. Which is/are the key comparison(s) that support the hypothesis that naked mole rat sociality is connected to relatedness?

Answer 14

That relatedness in naked mole rats is high, similar to that of inbred laboratory animals and domesticated animals

Question 15

According to the Major Transitions in Evolution framework proposed by Maynard Smith and Szathmary, increases in complexity over evolutionary time are due to _______________ between individual, smaller units.

Answer 15

Cooperation

Question 16

In a study of guppy mating behavior, a phylogenetic approach uncovered the following results. What can we NOT conclude based on this study?

Answer 16

That gonopodial thrusting represents a lower, unfit adaptation that is primitive

Question 17

Which of the following questions addresses ultimate causation?

Answer 17

Why do some animals secrete noxious compounds when threatened by a predator?

Question 18

Guppies that evolve with predators present have adapted in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

Answer 18

Showing aggression toward predators

Question 19

Homoplasy is a situation in which a trait is present in two different groups of organisms as a result of which evolutionary process?

Answer 19

Convergent evolution

Question 20

Under which view of biology are animals just “machines” that behave in ways that lead to passing more copies of their genes on to the next generation?

Answer 20

Dawkin’s concept of “selfish gene”

Question 21

Why are female mammals expected to be more ‘choosy’ when selecting a mate than males are?

Answer 21

Because females bear the brunt of the costs of reproduction

Question 22

Hormones are an efficient way for an organism to:

Answer 22

respond to environmental stimuli

Question 23

Neurons possess fibers called dendrites that perform which of the following functions?

Answer 23

Receive electrochemical information from other cells in the nervous system.

Question 24

Insulin is an example of a(n):

Answer 24

Fast acting peptide hormone

Question 25

Neural plasticity does NOT refer to:

Answer 25

the process by which certain brain areas become larger in some species compared to others.

Question 26

The main purpose of glia (or glial cells) is to:

Answer 26

provide physical support to neurons

Question 27

Male meadow voles are more promiscuous than male prairie voles, who instead tend to bond monogamously to one partner. This correlates to differences in their spatial cognition, so that:

Answer 27

male meadow voles are better at learning mazes than female meadow voles and male prairie voles.

Question 28

Which statement best describes the similarities/differences between vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems?

Answer 28

They have no homologous brain regions but many homologous neurochemicals.

Question 29

The endocrine system is a system of glands that secrete hormones into the blood or surrounding tissue.

Answer 29

True

Question 30

What type of hormones are not composed of a string of amino acids, but rather are small lipid-based molecules?

Answer 30

Steroid hormones

Question 31

The fact that taxi drivers in London tend to have larger hippocampi than average is a clear example of how the intense spatial learning required to become a taxi driver caused an increase in the area of the brain responsible for spatial memory.

Answer 31

False

Question 32

The study of song learning in finches revealed that the expression of the Zenk gene in the brains of male finches is:

Answer 32

just as strong when they hear a novel song after not hearing anything as it is after hearing a novel song after having already heard a different song.

Question 33

Epigenetic effects may explain why identical twins reared apart often end up developing very similar behaviors.

Answer 33

False

Question 34

In prairie voles, a higher level of _________ in a region of the ventral forebrain has been shown to promote __________.

Answer 34

vasopressin receptors; monogamy

Question 35

Quantitative traits are those traits that are the result of many different genes and are therefore found as discrete, non-continuous forms such as either blue or brown.

Answer 35

False

Question 36

The genetic 'heat map' showing the variation in gene expression over time as birds sing indicates that:

Answer 36

this behavior requires the coordinated expression of hundreds of genes.

Question 37

The "blank slate" view of development argues that all behaviors are the product of:

Answer 37

environmental influences

Question 38

A newborn female rat grows up in a stressful environment in which her mother is usually absent, and experiences low levels of licking and grooming throughout her juvenile stage. When that same rat grows up, she becomes an inattentive mother to her offspring, who in turn become inattentive parents to their own offspring. This is an example of a(n) ___________ effect on behavior.

Answer 38

Epigenetic

Question 39

The study of song learning in finches revealed that it only takes a couple of days for male birds to learn to sing the 'correct' mating song from more experienced adults.

Answer 39

False

Question 40

Most behaviors are the product of a single gene, with a simple one-to-one relationship between the gene and the behavior of interest.

Answer 40

False

Question 41

How might variation in maternal behavior be adaptive?

Answer 41

-Low levels of maternal care may be beneficial to offspring because they may allow the mother to spend more time finding food or defending the nest. -Low levels of maternal care may lead to offspring that are more vigilant and this may help them survive in a stressful environment. -High levels of maternal care may be beneficial to offspring because they are nursed and cared for more.

Question 42

If a trait it polygenic, its phenotype is typically:

Answer 42

quantitative

Question 43

Your apartment is infested with roaches. What a great opportunity to study animal behavior! You decide to set up an experiment to estimate the heritability of running speed in your roaches. First, you measure the running speed of 100 roaches in your population, and find the average is 6 km/h. Then, you take a subset of 30 roaches whose running speed is 8 km/h or over and you breed them together - you calculate the average speed of this breeding population to be 10 km/h. Therefore, the is 4Km/h. Next, you raise their 1000 offspring and measure running speed of all 1000 of them, finding it to be an average of 8 km/h. Therefore, the is 2Km/h. Based on your results, you calculate that the heritability of running is speed in these roaches is . You just conducted a(n) !

Answer 43

S, the selection differential R, the response to selection 0.5 Selection truncation experiment

Question 44

Hormone

Answer 44

A chemical messenger that communicates between endocrine cells and their target cells

Question 45

Pheromone

Answer 45

A chemical that is released into the environment to communicate between two or more individuals

Question 46

Neurotransmitter

Answer 46

A chemical messenger that communicates an electrical signal between two neurons

Question 47

Receptor

Answer 47

A protein in or on a target cell that a chemical messenger binds to, in a "lock and key" fashion

Question 48

Dr. Toth studies ____________.

Answer 48

eusocial insects