exam I Flashcards
two roots of modern animal behavior
ethology + comparative psychology
ethology
scientific study of animal behavior
comparative psychology 3 psychologists
pavlov, skinner, thorndike
comparative psychology questions
how did it develop? how does it work?
ethology questions
why did it evolve? why is it valuable?
the big three (ethology)
FLT - karl von frisch, konrad lorenz, nikolaas tinbergen
karl von frisch contributions
decoded the language of bees, animal language, contemporary of charles henry turner
konrad lorenz contributions
observation - discovered imprinting, fixed-action in birds
nikolaas tinbergen
experimental - “supranormal” stimuli and intensity of behavior, stickleback courtship and reproductive behavior
emergent property
observation and knowledge of lower levels of organization cannot necessarily predict properties at higher levels in biological systems
charles henry turner
studied insects and bees and their behavior
4 reasons to measure behavior
human benefits (biological basis), linkage with experimental neuroscience, more effective species conservation programs, it’s fun
ethologists (qualitative vs quantitative)
quantitively
qualitative
interpret subject’s behaviors in context, seek themes based on context, use of examples to support themes
quantitative
defines behaviors, counts behaviors, counts summarized and compared
5 challenges of measuring behavior
- change over time
- not discrete
- often complex
- often respond to environmental stimuli
- highly variable
proximate
pertaining to the individual animal
ultimate
pertaining to the population or species
current
occurs now, time scale is the animal’s lifetime
historical
occurs in evolutionary time, time scale is generations
proximate + current
how does it work? (causation)
proximate + historical
how did it develop? (ontogeny)
current + ultimate
what is it for? (survival value/reproduction)
historical + ultimate
how did it evolve? (evolution)
causation
what stimuli releases the behavior?
ontogeny
what development in the animal’s life leads to the behavior?
survival value
how does the behavior benefit the animal’s survival/reproduction?
evolution
from what behavior did this one evolve?
5 factors worth considering in choosing a species
replacement species, space, adjustment to captivity, rarity + effect on wild populations, paperwork
model organism
an organism studied enough that it can be used in replacement of other species and is easy to study
ethics vs morals
ethics are moral principles while morals are individual standards influenced by society/culture/family
the 3 r’s - moral obligations in animal use
replacement, reduction, refinement
replace examples
simulations, model organisms
reduce examples
power analysis (smallest sample size needed), justified experimental design
refine examples
husbandry improvements, experimental methods, anesthesia/analgesia, euthanasia
work on _ animals is regulated in the US
vertebrate
IACUC
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
iacuc 3 factors weighed
quality of research, certainty of benefit, degree of animal suffering
iacuc non-compliant consequences
shattered institutions, pulling of federal funding, moral standpoint
3 major ways behavior can be described
consequence, structure, spatial relation
consequence
describe effects of the behavior
structure
physical description, body parts
spatial relation
another physical description, body in relation to something external
ethogram
catalog of all behaviors performed by a species, definitions + descriptions (dictionary)
in practice, often a subset
refer to hypothesis
behavior (categories) should be
independent yet inclusive
4 measurements to study animal behavior
latency, frequency, duration, intensity
latency
time until a behavior
frequency
count of behavior
duration
length of behavior
intensity
local rate or amplitude
