Last Few Lectures Flashcards
what are the weasles in Nova Scotia
Pine Marten and Fisher are found in nova scotia
what is one species in mustelids that people believe should be distinct?
the Skunk family, which are mostly found in the valley and truro
what mink used to be found in Nova Scotia?
Sea minks used to be found in Nova Scotia but are now extinct due to fur trade
are members of the weasel family carnivores or herbivores?
they are carnivores
what is the smallest carnivore?
Least Weasels, about the size of a chipmunk
describe Minks
not very fearful but they are super bold
describe Martens
do not get along with fishers as fishers have been known to try and eat martens. they are smaller than fishers
describe Fishers
known to hunt squirrels and also porcupines, they will flip the porcupine on its back and attack the belly
what are the main characteristics of mustelids
- musk from anal glads which is unique to this species
- solitary (except otters and european badgers)
- sexually dimorphic as males are larger than females
- they are important for the fur industry
- a domesticated species is the ferrets which were domesticated by romans 2500 years ago for hunting
describe River Otters
- can be found in NS
- very smart and can be nice pets when they are tamed
- like to play with each other when they become adults
describer Pine Martens
- a species at risk in NS
- none of the pine martens in NS are indigenous to here
describe Corollary
- short tailed weasel turns white in the winter, a hormonal mechanism related to length of days and night.
describe Least Weasels
- small as a finger, will attack squirrel and chipmunks or other things that are bigger than them, have also been known to eat a deer
define Social Behaviour
interactions between two or more individuals within the same species in which, one or more of the individuals benefit from the interaction. the definition includes: courtship and mating behaviour as well as parental behaviour
what are the categories of social behaviour
- sexual behaviour
- parental & alloparental behaviour
- agnostic behaviour (conflict): aggression and submission
- affiliative behaviour including play
define Epimeletic
care giving, altruistic behaviour
define etepimeletic
care soliciting, asking for others help and care
define allelomimetic
doing the same thing of others, synchronization. if you want something from others you are more likely to mimic what they do
describe Agnosim
- about conflict, a hierarchy of behavioural patterns (aggressive or submissive) used during a conflict with conspecific, does not necessarily lead to reciprocity, based on a set of species specific social rules, aggressive or submissive acts include body movements, vocalizations or scent marking
describe aggression
- aggression is a behaviour intended to inflict injury/damage/pain or discomfort or fear upon another individual
- aggressiveness describes a predisposition or a disposition
- alot of aggression comes from fear/anxiety levels
describe submission
- response to aggression, behaviour used in order to avoid or escape aggression
- submissive behaviours include freezing or ignoring
- walking away from aggression however can appear aggressive so can not responding to threats
what are the dimensions of agnostic behaviour
- form: the pattern of aggressive/submissive behaviour (how is it done?)
- cause
- function: what is the aggressive/submissive act for?
- consequences: what happened?
- dispositional: hunger state, endocrine state, male/female, internal to the individual, current feeling
- situational: external to the individual, the context
what are the psychological processes involved in agnostic behaviour
- connotative: motivational factors, depends on the context, social and physical, internal and external
- affective: (socio-)emotional factors (activity reactivity; temperament)
- cognitive: perceptual and decisional factors, social cognitive factors and social intelligence
what are the requirements for dominance to take place in dominance hierarchies
- individual recognition and necessary social information processing
- interactional learning: earning from previous social experiences
what are the different kinds of aggression?
- hostiles (emotional) vs. Instrmental (not personal) aggression
- annoyance motivated vs. incentive motivated aggression
- reactive vs. proactive aggression
what is the main limitation of the sociobiological models of aggression/dominance
it applies to contests for 2 individuals only
describe the Hawk-Dove models
- a sociobiological perspective proposed by maynard smith
- hawk: persistance to injury, its rule is always be aggressive/aggressor
- dove: pretend, but retreat if opponent escalates
- missing ownership; idea that the hawk/dove profile wil change if you own something vs. if you don’t, this is where the bourgeios and anti bourgeeois comes in
describe the variations of the Hawk-Dove Model
- Bourgeois = strategy; play hawk if territory holder, play dove if you are not
- anti-bourgeois = strategy; play dove if territory holder, hawk if not
describe war of attrition
- sociobiological view
- testing the limits of another individual
- assumption: the distribution of contest length is related to the value of the object (source) of the conflict
- trying to see how long one will last during a competition
describe sequential assessment
- sociobiological perspective
- opponents are in continual sequential assessments of each other in ‘bouts’, you want to get all the information as you watch individuals interac with eachother.
- basically, make a move to attack and see how the other responds and then continue now, understanding the best move
- in this method the least risky behaviour is used first and slowly builds up in aggression based on response
- this is the best approach as far as literature goes
what is sequential assessmment an excellent model for?
- an excellent model for predicting outcomes, description of a full fighting sequence and identifying give up thresholds
what are related phenomena to sociobiological models of aggression
- winner effect = winning predicts more wins
- loser effect = losing predicts more losses
- bystander effect = earning by observing future opponents fight
- audience effect = individuals that are watched can change or adjust their behaviour
what are the environmental variables for aggression?
- prenatal and perinatal influences. for examples undernutirtion of mothers or hormonal exposure
- learning and experience. ex. social deprivation in mice can lead to an increase in aggressive behaviour
what are the characteristics of dominance hierarchy
- the dominant animal controls the subordinate animals. can vary in
1. frequency: of reversals, reciprocations (stability of hierarchy)
2. duration: stand offs vs. quick aggressive encounters; may not be meaningful if the interaction only lasts a few seconds
3. intensity of the interaction, the outcome/magnitude of an effect.
what does the structure of a dominance hierarchy depend on?
- stability of a group
- the size of a group
- the individuals involved
- the external factors, for example availability of resources
describe peck-right hierarchies
all aggressions go from dominant animal to subordinate
describe peck-dominance hierarchies
a majority of aggressions go from dominant to subordinate
what is the criteria for a dominance hierarchy?
you NEED asymmetry in order to have a domincance hierarchy
what are the types of hierarchies
- species specific
- resource specific
- population
- n specific: cultural aspect? potentially
describe the physiological factors in aggression
- limbic system is important here as it is where emotions are modulated in the brain. amygdala also has a big part in this as it identifies threats and how to respond to them
describe the role of the hypothalamus and aggression
- promotes offence, defence ad escape
- gateway between nervous system and endocrine system, linked to hormones at some levels
- two levels are responsible for two different things:defensive attacks (ventromedial) and direct attack
describe the role of the amygdala and aggression
- important for fear response
- if removed there is less fear and monkeys will move up in rank
what other brain structures are involved in aggression?
- midbrain
- frontal lobe
- temporal lobe
- hippocampus
- thalamus
describe the role of serotonin an aggression
- low levels of serotonin translates into aggression in most species, in depression you will see heightened irritability
describe the role of dopamine and aggression
- important for reward in the brain
- too much dopamine = higher aggression
- if you try and pull people away from reward seeking behaviour they will get really aggressive
describe the role of norepinephrine and aggression
- a link between aggression and depression
what are socialmatricies?
- used to understand the structure of a group, work best with groups of 5 individuals
what are socialmatricies used for?
can be used for the understanding of:
- deominance hierarchies (agnostic interactions)
- affiliations, associations, preferences, cooperations, coalitions, friendships
- sexual behaviour
- communication
- who’s paying attention to who
proximities
what are the two dimensions of personality?
- temperment; biological and genetic part of personality, makes you who you are from birth
- character; moulded by learning, experience and the environment, the part of personality that can change
describe Pavlov and personality
had a typology of the dogs nervous system based off of their activity reactivity to stimuli and their conditionability, that is, how easy or difficult they were to classically condition
describe Pavlov’s typology
- weak nervous system: melancholic dog
strong nervous system has 2 subtypes; - balanced: mobile (quite active, sanguine); slow (phlegmatic, couch potato)
- unbalanced: choleric digs (aggressive individual)
this typology originates from hippocrates and galen
describe Reale et al on personality
- shyness/boldness: response to risky situations; defining who will take risks and who wont
- exploation/avoidance: response to novel situations
- aggressiveness ; more likely to engage in fights
- sociability: any contact usually towards those of same species
according to Gosling what are spotted hyena’s personality traits?
- assertiveness
- excitability
- agreeableness
- sociability: between them
- curiosity
describe shy-bold continuum
- high predictability: the Kagan studies; started with fish
- boldness: risk taking, sensation seeking, high sociability, leadership, dominance, initiative
- shyness: tame behaviour, relaxation seeking, low sociability, conformity, sub ordinance, more likely to be followers
describe studying bold and shy fish
- seine: when you capture fish from the sea and throw back the fish you don’t need
- seining is non discriminative
- only bold fish will go to minnow traps, is you used minnow traps you will only have bold fish
- research with birds found that fast birds were bolder, aggressively approached objects. sow birds were shyer and followed bold birds
what is looked at when testing personality?
- consistency
- repeatability
- heritability ( lab experiments»_space;> behaviour genetics; field research: knowledge of genealogies)
what are mirror image stimulations?
use of a mirror, tests reactivity and aggression
what are keeper surveys
looks for traits associated with reduced breeding success
what are strategies to study behaviour syndromes
- the puzzling behaviour approach
- the candidate behaviour approach: looking for relationships between behaviours that are part of a syndrome in other species
- the proximate or bottom up approach: genes, hormones and neurotransmitters
- the ecological approach: the role of the environment
what are examples of domain specific individual differenced for the candidate behaviour approach?
- shy bold axis
- proactive-reactive axis
- aggressivness
- neophobia
- exploratory behaviour
- in other words people pick very specific behavioural profiles and try to understand how they apply in a social group
what are the fitness consequences of personality?
- variability in the phenotype important to sociobiology
- bolder males have and increase in reproductive success but at a survival cost
what is Spinka’s theory of play?
- cost = energy
- benefit = fun
what is the criteria of play?
- not completely functional
- endogenous component
- structural/temporal difference
- repeated
- relaxed field
describe play coping with stress
wolves in packs with pups have lower overall stress and wolf adults who play w/ pups less stressed than adults who don’t
describe Panksepp’s take on play
- play = indicator of physical and mental health
- it is very hard to induce play via antagonists or agonists
- best way to induce play is to deprive rodents of it and give it back
describe Burgharts take on play
- even in non-social species, the young are the ones who play
- in social mammals, the young drag the adults into play
- play intitated in optimal conditions: relaxed, witnessed setting, panksepp agrees
describe the triune brain
3 layers of the brain
- reptilium brain (all vertebrates have)
- paleo-mammiliam (limbic system)
- cortex “neomammilian”
describe the role of the limbic system
emotional aspect
describe the role of the cerebellum
motor
describe the role of the basal ganglia
motor and motivation
describe the role of the neocortex
sensorimotor and cognitive
how do ethologists view play?
they see the behaviour as adaptive
how do neurobiologists view play?
believe there must be something beneficial about it
which plays and which doesn’t: rats and mice
rats play (if you tickle a rat it will laugh) mice don't
how did beckoff view play
play = behavioural action sequences
- can be measured
describe electric fish
- communicate electrically
- largest brain of all vertebrates (big cerebellum)
- very social
- cerebellum controlling communication and also play
true or false, turtles play?
true! however, there are not much play in other reptiles and amphibians
what are the types of play?
- object = more than just exploring it, they engage
- social = (dyads) size of brain linked to how many you engage with
- locomotor = running/hopping/jumping in baby goats is an example. very specific to species. tough environments necessary for motor development
what are the types of play?
- object = more than just exploring it, they engage
- social = (dyads) size of brain linked to how many you engage with
- locomotor = running/hopping/jumping in baby goats is an example. very specific to species. tough environments necessary for motor development
- interspecific play = humans and dogs playing
describe the Spinka theory of play
- dopamine. play is rewarding as it produces endorphins because it is physical and pleasurable
describe play fighting
- teaches us how to gauge others
- ## in dominance species helps you find your rank
describe locomotor (solitary) play
- fine tuning of motor skills
- cerebellum important with this type of play, challenging the cerebellum in order to fine tune it
- repetition encodes information(motor tuning hypothesis)
- how quickly you correct yourself when you slip up ( motor tuning hypothesis)
- synaptogenesis in cerebellum
describe social play
- exploring social network, how strong am i compared to others
- info gathering
- understanding relationships
- useful for coalition formation and self-assessment of own development
what are signals of play
- pawing = want to play
- play-bow: arch back during play
- arch back + stretch + yawn before play
describe the anti thesis principle
high vocals and ow to the ground. supports that play involves theory of mind
what are syngnathids?
seahorses, pipefish, pipe horse and seadragons. males have a marsupium or use ventral gluing
many are monogamous or polyandrous
what is male brooding?
it means that the young depend on parental survival for far longer than most fish
where are pipefish typically found?
- in estuaries, coves, bays or inlets where eelgrass or seaweed are abundant. also can be found in freshwater near the coast
what do pipefish look like?
- pencil like
- narrow head
- tubular snout
- yellow-green colour
- rings of bony scales
- red eyes, which they can move independently of each other
describe pipefish breeding
- males store eggs in the brooding pouch
- females insert eggs directly into the pouch using an oviduct
describe Bernsteins Social Role theory
- based on the social function of individuals, the division of labour
- requires polyethism
what can roles be restricted to?
- age group
- sex
- rank
- specific body type (castes)
describe Barnetts terminiology
- treptic = define the effect or consequence of an action
- apotreptic = causes a conspecific to withdraw
- epitreptic = causes a conspecific to approach
what are advantages of barnetts theory
- makes no assumptions about the intention or state of an actor
play deprivation will ______ in rodents
increase play
what are play supressing neruochemicals
- serotonin
- norepinepherine
- GABA
- opiods: in high does
- dopamine: in high dose
- oxytocin
- CRH
what are play arousing neurochemicals?
- acetylcholine
- glutamate
- opiods: low dose
- Dopamine: low dose
whats Burghardts take on play?
- correlated with parental care and behaviour
- play is repeated, incompletely functional behaviour differing from more adaptive versions structurally, contextually, ontogenetically and intiated when the animal is relaxed
what are the 5 criteria to recognize play?
- not completely functional
- endogenous component
- structural/temporal difference
- repeated
- relaxed field
what are strategies to study behaviour syndromes?
- the puzzling behaviour approach
- the candidate behaviour approach: looking for relationships between behaviours that are part of a syndrome in other species
- the proximate or bottom up approach: genes, hormones, neurotransmitters
- ecological approach: the role of the environment
