Lecture 5

Question 1

What were some of the recent findings about trees.

Answer 1

Mother trees colonize their kin with bigger networks. They send them more carbon below ground. They reduce their own root competition for their kids. If the mom tree is dying they send messages on to the next generation.

Question 2

What are some conceptual issues for signals in the case for honeybees?

Answer 2

Honeybees use visual signals to communicate food sources.

The inside of the hive is dar.k

Question 3

What do Lek mating systems require?

Answer 3

Require males to demonstrate in densely populated areas

Question 4

What are the fundamental features of communication systems?

Answer 4

Source
Channel
Receivers

Question 5

What is not characteristic of signals?

Answer 5

Signals are almost never private. Auditory and visual cues are especially vulnerable.

Question 6

Give an example of interspecies exploitation of signaling.

Answer 6

Toads

Question 7

Give an example of intraspecies exploitation of signaling

Answer 7

Fireflys

Question 8

Describe the morphology of a signal.

Answer 8

The signal produced in not the same as the signal received.

Question 9

What are the 3 factors that influence signal structure.

Answer 9

Spreading
Attenuation
Interference

Question 10

Define spreading.

Answer 10

Spreading causes signals to weaken due to lack of directionality.

Question 11

Define attenuation.

Answer 11

Signals are affected by components in the environment.

Spectral and temporal components are really altered.

Question 12

Describe interference

Answer 12

The resulting decrease in strength of a signal due to background noise.

Question 13

Define an auditory domain

Answer 13

Characteristics of the habitat result in sound reverberation and attenuation.

Question 14

Define a visual domain.

Answer 14

Differences in filtering and light intensity can change the appearance of natural coloring.

Question 15

Range in signal intensity must correspond with what?

Answer 15

With perceptual abilities of the receiver, which must correspond with the range of producible signals.

Question 16

What is important for perception systems to have?

Answer 16

Should be highly sensitive to the most common ranges of signals a species can produce.

Question 17

Low frequency waves travel ___________ than high frequency waves.

Answer 17

further and more efficiently

Question 18

What do birds have that humans don’t

Answer 18

An extra color receptor that allows birds to see UV light. Helps them find food and mates.

Question 19

What sensory specialization does a duck billed platypus have?

Answer 19

A set of receptors that are sensitive to electrical fields. Use their sense to hunt for prey.

Question 20

What sensory specialization to bats and porpoises have?

Answer 20

Bats hear ultrasonic sounds

Porpoises hear a wide range of frequencies.

Question 21

What sensory specialization does the star nose mole have?

Answer 21

Finger like projections around mouth to sense vibrations in the ground. Helps the mole find food and locate other moles

Question 22

What sensory specializations to pit vipers have?

Answer 22

Organs that allow the snake to sense infra-red energy signatures. Helps to track prey.

Question 23

What sensory specialization to other species have?

Answer 23

Vomoronasal Organ (VNO) to scent track and detect things.(The bigger the organ, the better abilities it has)

Question 24

Animals that emit complex signals…?

Answer 24

Also contain perception abilities tuned to these complex displays.

Question 25

What are detection thresholds?

Answer 25

Lower and upper limits of a signal that are still detectable by the majority of individuals.

Question 26

What are detection thresholds influenced by?

Answer 26

Mechanisms of sensory system
Motivational and attentional state of receiver
Properties of the environment.

Question 27

Studies of communication require knowing what?

Answer 27

What can be detected and what is acted upon under natural conditions.

Question 28

Describe habituation.

Answer 28

Occurs at the brain level of perception
Signals are still being relayed from sense organs to the brain, but subcortical areas of the brain are altering level of response

Question 29

Describe sensory adaptation

Answer 29

Occurs at the sensory detection level

• Sensory detectors are picking up the signal, but are no longer relaying information to the brain

Question 30

Describe one of the habituation studies.

Answer 30

A sound is played repeatedly until an organism stops responding
• An alteration is made to the signal
• The level of reaction is quantified and associated with specific components of a signal

Question 31

Describe the study done by Seyfarth and Cheney.

Answer 31

Tested habituation in alarm calls in Vervet Monkeys
• “Leopard” versus “Eagle” alarms
• “Wrrs” versus “Chatters” • “Wrrs” indicate early stage
of aggression
• “Chatters” indicate escalating aggression

Question 32

What is an example of an ultimate effect of learning

Answer 32

mental maps

Question 33

Brother honeybees are related to their sister bees by a factor of what?

Answer 33

r=.5

Question 34

What is a sensitive period in the context of imprinting in geese?

Answer 34

for learning a period in the lifespan of an individual where learning or imprinting is greatly facilitated.
o Previously called a critical period.

Question 35

Define instinct

Answer 35

a behavior pattern that reliably develops in individuals that receive adequate nutrition, and that is given in functional form on its first performance.

Question 36

Describe an example of when it makes sense for nature to hardwire information or behavior into a species as opposed to having to learn it from scratch.

Answer 36

The bees have their waggle dance that describes where food is (they also use other cues like vibration)

Question 37

Describe Group selection

Answer 37

where selection for “fittest” is of the group, not the individual.

Question 38

Describe a problem with group selection?

Answer 38

The problem with group selection is that behavior that is strictly for the good of the species that confers no benefit to the performer will never emerge if there is an alternative, selfish behavior that does not require self-sacrifice.

Question 39

Who came up with the idea of kin selection?

Answer 39

Hamilton

Question 40

Describe altruism

Answer 40

any form of behavior that provides a benefit for another individual at a cost to the individual performing the action (self-sacrifice)

Question 41

Describe reciprocal altruism

Answer 41

sacrifices made by one individual that benefit another individual that is later reciprocated, so that both gain in the long run.
• Reciprocal altruism requires that the two actors recognize one another as individuals.

Question 42

Define code breaking

Answer 42

The relationship btw triggering cue and behavioral response of a FAP can be observed when the behavior is exploited by members of another, parasitic species.

Question 43

What will animals who “code break” do?

Answer 43

They mimic the triggering component of a FAP of another species.

Question 44

Give an example of the handicap hypothesis

Answer 44

A signal like a peacock’s tale are costly to produce, and therefore more reliable. But since they are reliable they are seen as a handicap.