Lecture 3 Flashcards
Natural selection works at the __________ level.
individual
Who does evolution favor?
Individuals that have some survival advantage.
Evolution works to increase an individual’s _________.
fitness
Describe kin selection.
Natural selection should also favor behavior that increase the survival of close relatives.
Give an example of kin selection in the wild.
Cooperative hunting in cheetahs (A cheetah will kill and give prey to a relative like a sister)
Define direct fitness.
The number of viable offspring produced, plus any effects that might have a positive effect on successive generations produced by direct offspring.
Define indirect fitness.
The increased reproductive success of an individual’s genetic relatives and ay lineal descendants of offspring.
Define inclusive fitness.
The sum of an individual’s direct and indirect fitness
What kind of fitness caused a paradigm shift in ethology?
Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness.
Hamilton’s theory allowed ethologists to make predictions about what?
When and where cooperative behavior may exist. Helped to explain confounding instances of cooperation (helpers at nest, cooperative hunting, alarm calling).
Define learning
Typically occurs at the individual level but can have components that are favored by natural selection.
What does individual learning do?
Alters the frequency of behaviors displayed within the lifetime of an individual.
(Where food patches are, where shelter is, and where predators are likely)
Give a proximate effect of learning.
Changes behavior over a single lifetime
Give an ultimate effect of learning
Natural selection would favor the ability of individuals to acquire specific types of information.
Describe cultural transmission?
A new or learned behavior is passed from person to person, can occur within or between species.
Define social learning.
Process where cultural transmission occurs.
Define social facilitation.
Animals learn by watching other individuals perform behavior
Define social enhancement.
The presence of other individuals draws attention and creates an opportunity for other members of the group to learn new behavior.
Individual learning never makes it across ___________.
generations
__________ __________ is required for learning by individuals to pass to the next generation.
Cultural transmission
Cultural transmission has _________ and _________ generation effects
within and between
Give an example for social learning
Norway rats:
They’re communal and lack ability to vomit
So, must be sure that new or novel foods are safe.
Individuals have a survival advantage if they’re predisposed for what?
If they’re predisposed to learn specific types of information.
The specific content of the learned info may be what?
May be time or situationally specific. There’s no benefit to having info hard wired.
