Lecture 1 Flashcards
Behavior is usually considered ____ …i.e., ____.
Behavior is usually considered output …i.e., movement.
Behavioral Research Strategies:
Describe behavior thoroughly: • By action • By consequence • Simple system approach •Generate hypotheses about mechanisms underlying relevant behaviors.
Tinbergen’s Questions About
Causes of Behavior:
4 LEVELS OF ANALYSIS:
– IMMEDIATE CAUSATION
– DEVELOPMENT
– EVOLUTION/NATURAL SELECTION
– ADAPTIVE FUNCTION
The task of observing and describing behavior is more difficult than it sounds.
As soon as the observer begins to watch and describe behavior, some degree of abstraction and bias is inevitable.
The task of observing and describing behavior is more difficult than it sounds.
This is a result of limitations on time and attention.
4 Reasons
– Cannot watch the animals 24 h/day the year around.
– Unable to attend to all aspects of the behavior at once.
– When providing verbal descriptions, the observer must force observations into the structure of a familiar language.
– The diligent behaviorist must always strive for maximal objectivity and breadth in behavioral description.
Animal Models
Most of what you learn about the relationships between biological clocks, rhythms, and behavior are outcomes based upon animal research.
7 Advantages of Animal Models
- Continuity of behavior from one species to another through evolution.
- Simplest system with qualities of interest.
- More economical to develop methods on animals that may be useful for people.
- Ethical considerations; some manipulation are not permissible in humans.
- Function of behavior often becomes clearer when viewed in a comparative manner.
- Places human system in perspective.
- Generalizations can be gained from animal models then tested in humans.
Disadvantages of Animal Models
• Enormous Species Differences.
*Behaviors may represent adaptations to very specific environments.
• Huge Behavioral Gap between Animals & Humans.
- Language & Cultural Evolution.
- To get the “cleanest” answers about simplest analyses, the less cognition, the better.
• Ethical Considerations.
STRONG INFERENCE.
4 Steps
1) Devise alternative/multiple hypotheses.
2) Design & execute experiment that will permit rejection of as many of the hypotheses as possible.
3) Retain surviving hypotheses.
4) Recycle.
*Science advances only by disproofs.
Common Misconception: that goal of scientific enterprise is to develop theories that cannot be disproved.
Wrong.
Marxist, Freudian, Darwinian theories cannot be disproved.
Generic Question in Studies of Behavior
What causes Individual X to emit Behavior Z?
• Approach of this class:
– What causes Individual X to emit Behavior Z at time Y?
Chronobiology
• Scientific study of biological clocks and their associated rhythms.
• Also called Biochronometry
– Began in the early 1960s
– Had to counteract the dogma of homeostasis in biology and medicine
Core body temperature varies
across the 24h day
fghfjt
Chronobiology borrowed terms and concepts extensively from ____ disciplines to describe _____ and their _____.
Chronobiology borrowed terms and concepts extensively from engineering disciplines to describe biological clocks and their associated rhythms.
RHYTHM
A recurrent event that is characterized by its period, frequency, amplitude, and phase.
PERIOD
The length of time required to complete one cycle of the rhythm in question.
– For instance, the amount of time required to go from peak to peak or trough to trough.
FREQUENCY
Computed as the number of completed cycles per unit of time.
– For example, 2 cycles per day.
AMPLITUDE
The amount of change above and below the average value.
– That is, the distance of the peak or nadir from the average.
PHASE
Represents a point on the rhythm relative to some
objective time point during the cycle.
Components of Biological
Rhythms
??
Some behavioral rhythms have been recognized since ancient times, but they have generally been attributed to ______ (outside the organism) factors.
Some behavioral rhythms have been recognized since ancient times, but they have generally been attributed to Exogenous (outside the organism) factors.