exam 2

Question 1

what are tinbergs four areas if inquiry

Answer 1

Causation, Ontogeny, Survival value, evolution

Question 2

Causation

Answer 2

what external stimuli are necessary and sufficient to elicit the motor pattern and what is the nature of the “wiring diagram”

Question 3

survival value

Answer 3

how a behavioral act contributes to the survival, and ultimately to the reproductive success of the animal the performs the act

Question 4

ontogeny

Answer 4

behavioral acts based/influenced by learning or learned through instinctive behavior (Nature vs nurture)

Question 5

evolution

Answer 5

pattern of evolutionary change in behavior and by what process did this change come about

Question 6

how does the axon hillock makes yes/no decision to propagate an action potential

Answer 6

it begins at a resting potential with the electrochemical equilibrium of potassium ions. There is no cell signaling at a no decision therefore there is an inhibitory postsynaptic potential. When there is a decision to a yes then this results in Na+ channels to open and cause depolarization.

Question 7

define stereotypy and give a specific example of a stereotype in specific species

Answer 7

persistent repetition of an act that may or may not be abnormal to that species.
Zoo elephants- seen pacing or rocking back and forth between front and hind leg

Question 8

natural selection

Answer 8

process by which heritable traits become more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of these traits producing consistent differences in fitness

Question 9

breeders equation

Answer 9

predicts evolutionary change when a phenotypic covariance exists between a heritage trait and fitness

Question 10

Delta Z means

Answer 10

the change in the mean over 1 complete generation

Question 11

h^2 means

Answer 11

proportion of trait variation statistically attributed to additive genetic effects, narrow sense heritability

Question 12

s in the breeders equation means

Answer 12

the measure of association between trait values and fitness, the selection differential

Question 13

narrow Sense heritability

Answer 13

the fraction of phenotypic variance that can be attributed to variation in the additive effects of alleles

Question 14

3 modes of selection that act on quantitative traits

Answer 14

directional selection
stabilizing selection
disruptive selection

Question 15

how can you tell if a behavioral trait is adaptive?

Answer 15

you can tell when a behavior is adaptive when it affects sexual reproductive or daily ways

Question 16

genetic drift

Answer 16

random changes in frequencies of two or more alleles or genotypes within a population

Question 17

gene flow

Answer 17

the movement of genes into or out of a population

Question 18

why are foraging strategies under strong natural selection

Answer 18

organisms whose foraging is as energetically efficient as possible should be favored by natural selection , predicts how an animal should behave when searching for food

Question 19

explain how a foraging opportunity could have led to the rapid evolution of polar bears to ABC brown bears

Answer 19

After the decrease of food in the regions where the polar bears lived they had to travel to areas where they could find more food to survive and traveled to places that resulted in the death of white fur. This then led to the natural selection of brown bears

Question 20

marginal value theorem

Answer 20

predicts the optimal foraging behavior

Question 21

What is the currency that starling parents are trying to maximize

Answer 21

maximize the rate of food delivery

Question 22

what are the 2 constraints that the leatherjackets face on every foraging trip?

Answer 22

load and travel/foraging time

Question 23

how does their optimal decision rule change with travel time (travel time is long or short)

Answer 23

depending on how long the travel time takes them will also impact the amount of food that they intake

Question 24

under what conditions should a predator switch from specializing (eating prey 1) to generalizing (eating prey 1 and 2)? Support answer with equation

Answer 24

the gain of energy from eating prey 2 is more than the gain from rejection and searching for a more profitable prey 1

S1> ((E1H2)/(E2))- h1

Question 25

How does the star nose in star moles help increase the profitability of small pretty items?

Answer 25

the star has very high levels of mechanosensory afferents , can sense very low vibrations

Question 26

given that the star nose moles live in swamps and marshes in eastern North America, how did competition for food in swamps shape the evolution of this novel sensory appendage

Answer 26

they have a short handling time when consuming small prey, therefore they eat it quickly

Question 27

define behavioral imprinting

Answer 27

a kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid when its attention is fixed on a certain stimuli and is irreversible

Question 28

filial imprinting

Answer 28

young animals imprints on the behavior of its parents

Question 29

example of an improper filial imprinting

Answer 29

when a duck imprints on a human

Question 30

sexual imprinting

Answer 30

young animals imprint on the characteristics of a desirable mate

Question 31

example of improper sexual imprinting

Answer 31

biologists took a rejected egg from a whooping crane and had sandhill cranes raise it in order to increase whooping crane population however the offspring resulted in the crane not having any sexual interest in other whooping cranes only in the sandhill cranes

Question 32

habituation

Answer 32

the waning of responsiveness to neutral stimulus, decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations

Question 33

sensitization

Answer 33

enhanced responsiveness to a repeated stimulus

Question 34

basics of classical conditioning

Answer 34

there is an unconditioned stimulus like the meat powder that provides an unconditioned response which would be the production of saliva, once a conditioned stimulus is introduced the subject now knows that with that conditioned stimulus there will be the meat powder this lead to a conditioned response.

Question 35

the result of the conditioned stimulus presented alone for several trials without unconditioned stimulus

Answer 35

extinction- unlearning or new learning of the conditioned repose. The conditioned response begins to wane

Question 36

operant conditioning

Answer 36

animal associated a behavioral act with unconditioned stimulus and the animal can learn to perform behavioral act in response to a conditioned stimulus

Question 36

how is operant conditioning different than classical conditioning

Answer 36

in classical conditioning there is a neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned response while operant conditioning is a desired behavior paired with consequence

Question 37

how is operant conditioning different than classical conditioning

Answer 37

in classical conditioning there is a neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned response while operant conditioning is a desired behavior paired with consequence or reward

Question 38

how can operant conditioning be used to train a pet

Answer 38

When there is a desired behavior you give a treat immediately or you punish so that the dog learns thought actions

Question 39

explain how classical conditioning is used when clicker training a dog

Answer 39

The dog associated treat with food therefore they salivate when you add in a conditioned stimulus which is the clicker it associates the clicker with a treat and does the conditioned response

Question 40

switch learning

Answer 40

to be rewarded, the bird had to visit the other flower

Question 41

stay learner

Answer 41

to be rewarded, the bird had to visit the same flower

Question 42

why was switch learning harder