IC and AS Flashcards
What is IC?
Immidiate causation
What is AS?
Adaptive Significance
Why do we need to know about AC and IC?
We need to know why animals do what they do
Some clients want it
How do we know what a client wants? Fix or why?
The clue is in the questioning!
What lens do we look at why from?
Biology!
Why do we study why IC and AS
To learn why animals do what they do
What is behaviour for?
- Survival to reproductive age
- Reproduce
What is survival about?
Get enough to eat
Avoid being eating
Avoid injury and disease
What are the AS of survival?
Get to adulthood and reproduce to pass on your genes
What is a sexual cannibal?
An animal where the female consumes the male before/or after copulation
What are the 2 types of sexual cannibalism?
1) Consensual
2) Non sonsensual
What is consensual sexual cannibalism?
Male allows himself to be consumed! He’s genetically programmed to offer himself as a meal so the female is well nourished and able to grow and nurture his offspring
What is non-consensual sexual cannibalism?
The female see’s the male as a snack. The male wants to go and copulate with someone else and leave more offspring.
Does it matter what traits you have if you fail to reproduce?
No! It doesn’t matter at all because you do not pass the superior gene’s on.
What have all organisms on the planet descended from?
An unbroken line of organisms that reproduced at least once!
What does the unbroken line mean?
There is ruthless vetting of organisms’ ability to
live to reproductive age
reproduce
Are biological processes expense?
Yes, survival and reproducing is metabolically expensive
Is movement expensive?
Yes
Is learning expensive?
Yes running a brain is very metabolically expensive!
What is metabolically expensive for a dog?
Survival
Reproducing
Spring into action at any time
Eating
Moving
Behaving
Keep brain and Body in a ready peak
What does this notion of metabolic expense contradict
Dogs should do stuff to make me happy!
If there is such an expense to behaviour what do we need?
Offsetting benefit
What is the offsetting benefit? As ir ic
Follow the money-> adaptive significant
What are the 4 drivers for dog Behvr
AS - Reproduce, get enough to eat, avoid being eaten, avoid injury and disease
What is IC - Buffy & Costumes
I sit because I get snacks, I feel good when she puts head dress on me because I feel snacky happy
What question can we ask to ID AS from IC
Why RIGHT NOW in particular, are you doing a B?
What does domestication do to AS and IC?
Selection pressures change.
Some are increased
Some are relaxed
Why are some selection pressures increased?
Selective breeding - I want X trait or Y trait
Why are some selection pressures decreased?
Human safety net
Allowance for misfires
What is drift in relation to selection pressures
Unimportant traits which are largely ignored.
Buggy, misfiring, drifting traits!
What is an example of domestication where the animal is successful but only because of human intervention
English bull dogs who have to be born via cessarian
What does success mean in evolutionary sense?
Survive to reproductive age and reproduce
What does fit mean?
They make it to reproductive age and they reproduce
What do we make value judgements about?
HOW they survive and reproduce!
E.g. human assistance, eating their mate etc!
What allows traits to drift?
Human safety net
Allowances for misfire
What is a misfire
Behaviour software running at the wrong time, at the wrong target etc.
Why do misfires exist?
These animals are allowed to reproduce
What is the definition of IC?
What is the trigger for this behaviour right now? If you interview the animal or did bloodwork what kind of answer might you get?
What is the definition of AS
How does, or did, this behaviour contribute to the animals survival or reproduction
What is a helpful way of thinking about IC and AS
Peel the “but why” onion to get to the core
What is the core of the onion?
The AS answer!
What are the layers of the onion?
IC
Fat and Sugar now kill us, why haven’t we evolved a preference against fat and sugar?
Because we survive to reproductive age so we pass it on
Who is Sir Peter Medawar and the Medawar effect?
The prediction is that you’d get sick and die after your reproductive stage. Why? The pressure to live is lifted because you have already reproduced.
How does evolution work in reference to bugs that pick us off
The bugs that pick you off before you reproduce do not get passed on
The bugs that pick you off after you reproduce do get passed on
IC or AS - why do people fight for just causes?
Because it feels like the right thing to do?
IC
IC or AS - why do people fight for just causes?
Because of cultural conditioning?
IC
IC or AS - why do people fight for just causes?
Because empathy and altruism are selected for under certain conditions
AS
IC or AS - why do people fight for just causes?
Because they have mirror neurons?
IC
IC or AS - why do people fight for just causes?
Because they can’t sleep at night if they don’t
IC
IC or AS - why do people fight for just causes?
Because they feel better about themselves if they’re on the moral high ground
IC
IC or AS - why do people fight for just causes?
Because they are taught morals by their parents?
IC
Why do dogs hump pillows?
Because they are anxious or amped up?
IC
Why do dogs hump pillows?
Because they are hormonally imbalanced
IC
Why do dogs hump pillows?
Because they have dominant personalities and sometimes redirect behaviour from dogs to pillows?
IC
Why do dogs hump pillows?
Because It’s cheap yet incredibly vital repro FAP and it sometimes misfires
AS
Why do dogs hump pillows?
Because they don’t get enough exercise and environmental enrichment
IC
Why do dogs hump pillows?
Because it feels good
IC
What are the costs of Tendency towards mounting is under selective (i.e. hump anything)
Costs - Energy expenditure, Aggressed off more
What are the benefits of tendency towards mounting underselectively
Rarely miss mating opp
What are the costs of the Tendency towards mounting is over selective
miss mating opps
What are the benefits of the Tendency towards being over selective in mounting?
Saves energy
Aggressedd of less
Which dog will be more successful and pass on his genes in relation to the selectiveness of mounting?
The under-selective animal will mate more and therefore be more represented in the population. Therefore he will pass his genes on to being under selective to mating and therefore may hump pillows etc
