Introduction

Question 1

What are mutations?

Answer 1

Mutations are abrupt changes in genes. They can be caused by radiation or chemical exposure, or infection.

Question 2

What is a reflex?

Answer 2

A reflex is a specific event and a simple response to that event. They exist in all members of a species as a piece of neural hardware for survival.

Question 3

What is sensitization?

Answer 3

Sensitization is when the elicitation of a reflex response can increase the intensity or probability of the response to a similar stimulus.

Question 4

What is habituation?

Answer 4

It is when repeatedly evoking a given reflex response will result in a reduction in the intensity/probability of the response

Question 5

What are FAP?

Answer 5

• Fixed action patterns are largely inherited series of interrelated actions. While they resemble reflexes, they are less variable and have a strong genetic basis.
• E.g., possum playing dead to protect itself from predators

Question 6

What is the old name for FAP? Why isn’t it used anymore?

Answer 6

Instincts - it isn’t used anymore because it has come to mean automatic behaviours.

Question 7

What are releasers?

Answer 7

Releasers are fixed-action patterns that are reliably elicited by specific kinds of events.

Question 8

Do humans have FAP?

Answer 8

It is debated if humans have fixed action patterns. Although humans have instincts related to socialization, sex, parenting and safety, they lack the autonomous character of web-spinning in spiders and nest-building in birds. With humans, there is cultural and individual variation in how we approach mates and parenting, lacking the stereotypic behaviour of most other animals.

Question 9

What are general behaviour traits?

Answer 9

• General behaviour traits are behavioural tendencies that have genetic determination.
• activity levels, aggression, introversion, anxiety, hoarding, sexual practices, etc.

Question 10

What is an aversive?

Answer 10

Aversives are things that an organism strives to avoid (i.e., painful, noxious, unpleasant). They will reliably produce anger in many animals.

Question 11

What is the chief limitation of natural selection?

Answer 11

It is slow, making it a difficult way of coping with change.

Question 12

Define learning.

Answer 12

Learning is defined as a change in behaviour due to experience.

Question 13

What is the relationship between learning and natural selection?

Answer 13

Learning is a product of natural selection, as it is an evolved mechanism for coping with challenges in a changing environment.

Question 14

What advantage does learning have over reflexes, fixed-action patterns, and general behavioural traits?

Answer 14

It compensates for what reflexes, FAPs and general behaviour traits lack by enabling the organism to adapt to situations for which innate behaviour would be inadequate.

Question 15

What is the problem with the nature-nurture debate?

Answer 15

The problem with this debate is that it creates an artificial divide between heredity and experiences when they’re inextricably linked and cannot be separated.

Question 16

How do FAP differ from general behaviour traits?

Answer 16

They differ from fixed action patterns in that FAP are elicited by specific events, whereas behaviour traits occur in a variety of situations. In addition, behaviour traits can be performed in a variety of ways, in contrast to the stereotypic execution of FAPs.

Question 17

Who said that change is the only constant?

Answer 17

Lecretius (Roman philosopher)

Question 18

When was Darwin’s theory of natural selection published?

Answer 18

1859

Question 19

Was Darwin aware of the genetic basis for evolution by natural selection?

Answer 19

• Darwin did not understand the genetic basis of variation, but he knew that variation within a species was common via observation.
• E.g., having thicker coats in colder regions and thinner coats in warmer regions.

Question 20

Describe Dawkins’s pebbly beach analogy for natural selection.

Answer 20

• On a beach, the smaller pebbles are in zones that run along the length of the beach, and the larger ones are elsewhere.
• They are affected differently by the waves, so they end up in different places.
• Shows that environment changes the location and properties of certain species.

Question 21

How do the Peppered Moths demonstrate natural selection? (Kettlewell)

Answer 21

• rests on tree trunks during the day, so they require camouflage
• at this time, they were all gray colour to resemble the trees in the region.
• pollution in the area began to kill region’s trees, darkening their bark. This gave black peppered moths an advantage.
• increased number of the black moths in high pollution areas with few light coloured moths.

Question 22

How do the finches demonstrate natural selection? (Grants)

Answer 22

• Birds with slightly longer (4-5%) beaks were better able to to eat seeds, so birds with slightly shorter beaks died in times of drought when seeds were a more abundant food source.
• The opposite was true after the drought ended, with the smaller-beaked birds regaining their advantage.

Question 23

What do the finch and moth studies say about natural selection overall?

Answer 23

• Natural selection accounts for most of the differences w/i species across regions and time
• Characteristics of a species are largely context-dependent to maximize fitness.

Question 24

What is the rooting reflex?

Answer 24

An infant will turn towards the direction of touch on the face - this is to help a baby find its mother’s nipple

Question 25

What is reflex failure?

Answer 25

• reflex does not work properly

- e.g., an example of this is an allergic reaction.

Question 26

How may the blushing reflex have survival value?

Answer 26

It may protect us from injury by appeasing others who we have offended.

Question 27

How does sensitization relate to drug addiction?

Answer 27

Animals given addictive drugs over a period of time were found to be more sensitive to their effects later on. In the study, rats showed an increased response to morphine for up to three months after their last dose.

Question 28

What is the relationship between fetal habituation and intellectual development after birth?

Answer 28

• when babies first heard a noise, they had increased heart rate, but with regular repetition of the noise, the increased heart rate became less pronounced until the noise cause no measurable effect at all.
• this has also been found with fetuses who experience a stimulus to the mother’s abdomen which causes the fetus to move, until it is a regular event and does not elicit a response.
• evidence suggests that the rate at which a fetus habituates is correlated with intellectual development after birth.

Question 29

What domains of behaviour are included in FAPs?

Answer 29

those related to protection, procuring food, mating and child-rearing.

Question 30

What is a releaser for aggression in the male stickleback fish?

Answer 30

it responds aggressively to other males of its species, but this response is triggered by the red colouring on a male’s abdomen (this colour will even be attacked if it is not a stickleback fish, regardless of resemblance to the species)

Question 31

Describe the fixed-action pattern of tropical army ants that suggests they are engaging in intelligent behaviour.

Answer 31

They move across forests in what looks like a highly organized, intelligent way, but they are really following a chemical trail being released by the ant in front. On a flat road with no obstacles to guide the path, the organized manner in which they move becomes disrupted and the ants will march in circles.

Question 32

What is an FAP of salmon? How does it show selection of FAP?s

Answer 32

• Salmon migrate upstream to breed. At one point, this have been an easy swim, but with geological changes, the steepness of the slope intensified.
• This ensures that only the strongest fish make it to the breeding area to reproduce.

Question 33

Is incest an FAP?

Answer 33

• E.O. Wilson that an aversion to incest is a fixed action pattern because children of family like groups do not marry outside of the group.
• Freud said that if there was a natural aversion to incest, there would be no reason for a taboo to provide social control.
• Also, incestuous acts are relatively common, but should be rare if were a true instinct.
• Conclusion: NO

Question 34

Does heredity play a role in the appearance of general behaviour traits?

Answer 34

• Yes.
• E.g., promiscuous snakes had greater chance of mating and producing offspring, meaning that this behaviour is passed on

Question 35

Are genetically linked behaviour characteristics connected to physicality? (Clue: foxes)

Answer 35

• Yes.
• Researchers bred foxes based on general behaviour characteristics that were most dog-like (i.e., approaching people and licking their hands).
• They became more dog-like in physical appearance with floppy ears, colouring and upturned tails.

Question 36

What is another (non-chief) limitation of natural selection?

Answer 36

It doesn’t help the living, only gives an advantage to those that happens to inherit favourable traits.

Question 37

Describe Cronk’s views about how behaviour that defies explanation can be caused by forces of natural selection.

Answer 37

• “behavioural and physical adaptations that seem to make no sense in an organism’s current environment can be traced to the legacy of an earlier, different environment in which those traits were favoured.”
• This means that traits that don’t make sense to us are likely that way because they emerged in an environment that is no longer known to us.

Question 38

What does Skinner mean by saying that people can be hostages to their genetic history?

Answer 38

• Our world has changed, so what we have evolved to be attracted to is no longer beneficial.
• E.g., we evolved to strongly like salt and sugar when it was scarcely available, but now it is abundant and we often consume too much of them, endangering our health.

Question 39

Describe Strum’s findings on the aggressive behaviour of baboons.

Answer 39

• Success among baboons depends on learning strategies.
• The highest-ranking males were the most aggressive.
• The apes with the most benefits were the lowest-ranking, least aggressive ones.
• Their gentler approach worked to attract mates (only 1/4 successful mating attempts involved aggression).
• Newcomers to the group tended to be more aggressive, but they eventually learned more civil strategies over time to increase success.

Question 40

Explain the problem with the nature-nurture debate with reference to the idea that humans are (not) naturally aggressive monkeys reared in isolation. Make reference to human sexual behaviour, offspring-rearing practices (including Kuo’s work), and deviant human behavior.

Answer 40

• There is a problem with the notion that if reared in isolation that humans would be aggressive animals because societies across the world demonstrate different levels of aggression.
• Human aggression isn’t based on inborn drives, but an interaction of genetic potential and experiential learning.
• Kuo (1930) reared kittens in different conditions - some with their mothers who killed rats, and some without their mothers. Kittens that had been reared by their mothers were substantially more likely to kill rats once they matured, indicating that killing prey is influenced by experience.
• Humans require learning for what are thought to be instinctive acts such as sex and parenting.
• Humans can inherit a tendency for anxiety, bizarre thinking and abnormal behaviour, influencing deviancy, but experience also plays an important role.

Question 41

Describe Russell’s views about human superiority over other species.

Answer 41

• Humans used to think they were superior to other species because of their ability to reason, but studies of animal learning demonstrate that other apes have novel thinking abilities (e.g., make tools) and communication capacities (exists in porpoises).
• features that we think are uniquely human are continually being shown to exist in other species, meaning no superiority exists at all.

Question 42

Describe the Harlows’ work with monkeys reared in isolation.

Answer 42

• Monkeys reared in isolation were less sexually competent than those reared by other monkeys, in that they were unsure how to proceed despite interest, indicating that even normal sexual functioning is influenced by learning.
• They also became poor parents, suggesting that maternal care is also influenced by learning. At times the mothers neglected to nurse their young, which we often think of as an instinctive act of care.

Question 43

Describe Hart and Risley’s study on how narration styles impact child development.

Answer 43

Children with parents who talked to them a lot in elaborate ways and gave positive feedback scored higher on intelligence and vocab tests several years later, with race and SES held constant.

Question 44

Who discovered the genetic basis of natural selection? When was his work publicly known?

Answer 44

Gregor Mendel, 1900s