Midterm - Topic 2 Flashcards
Proximate explanation
- focus on understanding the immediate behaviour
- from birth to death
- proximate is the here and now and the lifespan of the individual
Ultimate explanation
-require evolutionary reasoning and analysis
Tinbergen’s Four Questions - Proximate
- What mechanisms caused the behaviour?
- -> how do all the parts work together, what are the inner workings that allow this behaviour to occur - How does the behaviour develop?
Tinbergen’s Four Questions - Ultimate
- What is the function of the function of the behaviour?
- -> always in regards to survival in terms of ultimate explanation - How did the behaviour evolve?
- -> when in the evolutionary history did the behaviour develop?
Example for ultimate and proximate explanation - Crested owls hunt at night and can capture their pray in total darkness
Proximate questions
- the mechanism: the eye may have a distribution of rods and cones optimal for night vision
- develop: maybe at birth the animal has problems hunting but as they get older they use their eyes more and the eyes develop and eventually they can see in the dark
Ultimate questions:
- function (wrt survival always): to eat
- evolve: must be a while ago an ancestor started to become good at seeing in the dark which became favourable
Female chimpanzee experiment set up
Research Question: Do pregnant and lactating chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) alter their feeding behaviour to compensate for increased energy demands of reproduction?
Hypothesis: Pregnant and lactating females will consume a diet that provides higher caloric intake than will non pregnant, non lactating females
Prediction: Pregnant and lactating females will have a higher caloric diet (of fruit) than non lactating or pregnant females
Methods: the adults were classified into 3 categories
- pregnant
- lactating
- non pregnant, non lactating
The feeding behaviours were recorded
Foraging = looking for food, eating
Travelling = did they have to travel to find food
–> once they reached the area where there is food, it is not considered travelling, it is now foraging
Female Chimp experiment results and conclusion
REFER TO GRAPHS
The pregnant chimps do not go as far or forage as long. This being said, the pregnant and lactating chimps have more calories in their diet.
The pregnant and lactating chimps don’t spend as much time looking at different food sources, their target is very specific to fruits which are high energy
Conclusion: Female chimpanzees appear to alter their diet to include more high calorie fruit when pregnant and lactating to increase their caloric intake
Challenges when studying animals
Reactivity: minimize the reactivity to humans. Animals should not be reacting to humans. Humans should be far enough away to not be seen.
External validity: to maximize validity, what you are observing in the sample population should generalize to the entire population. For this to occur you have to decrease your presence as you being their could affect the way the sample group behaves and therefore this would not be generalizable to the entire population.
Tropical Tadpole experiment set up
REFER TO GRAPHS
Research questions: Why do tadpoles jump out of puddles?
- is tadpole jumping behaviour a response to the presence of predators?
- does jumping increase survival?
Hypothesis: Jumping is an antipredator behaviour
Prediction: Tadpoles will jump most often from puddles that contain predators
IF jumping is an antipredator response THEN the tadpoles will jump most often from the puddle that contains predators
Methods:
- the tadpoles were collected
- dragonflies were collected
- the tadpoles were acclimated in the lab fo 5 days
- sandy pools were created
Tadpole experiment 1
Tadpoles were placed in 1 of 3 treatments
- Predator treatment, one naiad in the arena
- An inanimate object similar sized to a naiad is placed in the arena
- No object or predator in the arena
Number of jumps per tadpole were recorded
Results: jumps were most common in the predator arena
Tadpole experiment 2
Tadpoles were placed in one of 2 treatments:
- A screen is placed over the arena to prevent the tadpole from jumping out
- No screen on the arena allow them to be able to jump out
Results: Survival was highest in the non screened arena
Tadpole experiment conclusion
Tadpole jumping behaviour is an effective antipredator behaviour that enhances survivorship
Ancestral Traits
Plesiomorphic
Found in common ancestors or two or more species
Derived traits
Apomorphic
Found in more recently evolved species and not present in common ancestor
Phylogeny
Diagram showing evolutionary ancestor descendent relationships among a set of organisms
Use genetics and any variable we are interested in examining
Sister Species
Two species that are more closely related to one another than to any other species
They are more genetically similar than other species in that genus
Order of Phylogeny
Life Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species
Mice Phylogeny
Genus: Peromyscus Species: -californicus -polionotus -eremicus -leucopus -crinitus
Burrowing mice experiment set up
REFER TO GRAPHS
Research question: How did burrowing behaviour evolve in different species of Peromyscus mice?
Methods: Construct a phylogeny of 7 species using genetic data
Characterize the burrowing behaviour of each species (no burrow construction, simple burrows, complex burrows)
Map the burrow behaviour onto the phylogeny –> wanted to map the behaviours on top of the genes of the phylogeny
Compare burrowing of closely related species
Results from mice burrowing
The graph has 2 values on the x axis
- the frequency of burrowing
- the length of the burrow
The y axis shows the respective species
There is a lot of variation between the frequency and complexity of the burrows between species
Results:
- Absence of burrows seems to be the ancestral trait
- sister species often exhibit different burrowing behaviours
Conclusion:
-burrowing behaviours appear to have evolved independently across species are are therefore derived traits.
The common ancestral trait is the absence of burrows
–> this is the assumption because of the extreme variation
The Three R’s
Replacement:
Is there a way to create a simulation and get the same data
Encourages use of computer modeling, videotapes, or other approaches in place of actual research animals in the laboratory
Reduction:
Promotes limiting the number of animals subject to disturbance in research or teaching
Refinement:
Involves improving procedures and techniques to minimize pain and stress for animals
Charles Darwin
- the story of science becomes concrete with Charles Darwin
- wrote a book in 1859 called The Origins of Species. This book changed the way we think about animal behaviour
- later in 1871 he published: The Decent of Humans
- in 1872 he published a book about expression in animals
- -> in this book he said that a lot of our expression are evolved and not learned, and many expression are similar in humans and animals (eg. when scared you curl up into a ball)
- Darwin helped with the understanding of comparative biology
- Darwin’s main question was: are we all the same, do we have the same ancestors as animals
- -> at this time a lot of doctors were religious and thought humans were not form the same ancestral line as animals
Comparative biology
Looking at differences and similarities between species
C. Loyd Morgan
He criticized Romanes’ approaches Says that interpretations, and research design need to be simple, no need to put together such an complex research question and hypothesis
Simplicity is very important in science
Avoid anecdotal evidence –> evidence from personal experience
Morgan’s Cannon
In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale.
Edward L. Thorndike
Comparative psychologist
Measuring how long it takes for a cat to get out of a puzzle box.
When the same cat was put in the same box multiple times, the amount of time it takes for the cat to escape decreased.
Thorndike urged the use or repeated observations under standardized conditions
Margaret F. Washburn
Wrote a book called: The Animal Mind
She was the first women to earn her PhD
She examined things like sensory discrimination between the species
For examples, the abilities of eyes in cats vs. dogs vs. horse vs. humans
B.F. Skinner
Behaviourism
Famous for his operant chamber
Operant chamber: animals in an enclosed box with a level, button etc.
Recorded how many time the animal did a response and in what time
Response rate: responses/time
Response rate give the animals rate of learning
With rewards and punishment, the behaviours could be increased or decreased
Instrumental conditioning
Behaviourism
Field of comparative psychology that studies behaviour independent of animal mental states or consciousness
A form of learning in which the consequences of a behaviours are manipulated in order to increase of decrease the frequency of a response or to shape an entirely new response
Increase/ decrease a behaviour with a reward/ punishment
John B. Watson
What is the role of the environment on behaviour
He studied animals behaviour independent of its consciousness and mental state
Ivan Pavlov
Father of Classical Conditioning
He classically conditioned a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell
Classical Conditioning
Form of learning in which an association is formed between one stimulus and another
Required training
Uses automatic processes and neutral stimuli
Components of Classical Conditioning
Neutral Stimulus (NS)
-an occurrence that currently does not produce a response when it is presented.
Conditioned Stimulus
- is a previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus, produces an unlearned response. → training required
Unconditioned Stimulus
-is any stimulus that automatically produces a response without any prior learning. → no training required
Conditioned Response
-is the learned response made to the conditioned stimulus. → response after training
Unconditioned response
- is the automatic unlearned response made to the unconditioned stimulus. → response without any training
Example of Classical Conditioning Dog Salivation
US: Food
UR: Salivation
CS: Bell
CR: Salivation
The food will produce an automatic response of salivation in the dogs
When the bell is rung and then the food is presented, the dogs learn that the bell is a good predictor of food. With multiple rounds of training, the dogs will salivate when the bell is rung, even before the food is presented
When is the CS presented wrt to the US
The timing of when the CS is presented is very important
It has to be presented before the US.
Dog example: trying to make the connection that the bell is the signal that food is coming
Can you unlearn a paired CS and US
Yes. if the CS is presented too many time without the US, the animal will learn that the CS is no longer a valid signal for the US
Taste aversion
Taste aversion is very quick learning
It is a type of classical conditioning
Anything that causes pain or sickness will make classical conditioning very fast
Ex. if a fox eats a sheep that had LiCl on it, it will get very sick and very quickly stop eating the sheep
Classical Ethology
Natural environment of the animal, benefits, and the way the animal behaves in it. They go into the animals environment
Nikolas Tinbergen
Karl von Frisch
Konrad Lorenz
Interdisciplinary Approaches
Interdisciplinary means that animals can be measured and studied in many different ways
- Behavioural Ecology: focus on the ecology and evolution of behaviors and their fitness consequences
- Evolutionary psychology: understanding human thinking and behaviour assuming that natural selection has shaped the architecture of our brain and our thought processes in an adaptive mannor
- Cognitive ethology: understanding how natural selection acts on mental processes and cognition. Has to do with problem solving and memory
Evolutionary Psychology
Seeks to understand human thinking and behaviour that assumes that natural selection has shaped brain architecture and thought processes in an adaptive manner
ex. taste aversion happens in both human and non human animals
Cognitive Ethology
Seeks to understand how natural selection acts on mental processes and cognition
Anything to do with problem solving, memory etc.
Storage and manipulation of information relative to the outside world –> eg how do animals figure out where they have stored food in the environment
Ethology: studying in the wild
Cognition: storage and manipulation of information
Behavioural Ecology
Focuses on the ecology and evolution of behaviours and its fitness consequences
Observing the behaviours and asking why it does this behaviour evolve based on the ecological pressures
George Romanes
Contemporary of Darwin and approach animal behaviour from the perspective of a comparative psychologist.
–> he studied animal behaviour to better understand human behaviour
published a book on the hierarchy reasoning among taxa
However many of the examples in his books are anecdotal and anthropomorphic and therefore even though he was on of the first to attempt to systematically examine behaviour in the animal kingdom, he was heavily criticized
Guilty look in dogs
People often say that when there dog has done something wrong, they have a guilty look on their face and they know they have done something wrong
–> this is an anthropomorphic trait
Experiment where dogs were shown a treat by the owner and then told not to eat it. Owner then left the room. The experimenter then either gave the treat to the dog to eat or took the treat away. Either way, the treat was gone when the owner came back. Researcher then told the owner that the dog had or had not eaten the treat, whether it be true or not. The owners were told to scold there dog if they were told they ate the treat
Results: the dogs obedience had no effect on it’s guilty look, the mean number of guilty looks was the same whether the dog had really had the treat or not
Conclusion: dogs did not display more guilty behaviour after disobeying a command
Does not rule out that the can experience guilt
–> perhaps the guilty look is in response to the owners attitude.
The comparative Method
Scientists examine differences and similarities between species to understand the evolution of behaviours
Often sets of closely related individuals share similar traits because they have a common ancestor
Do lemmings commit suicide
Myth: lemmings commit suicide to prevent overpopulation
True that lemming populations do experience large fluctuations and they do disperse during periods of high abundance, but there is no evidence that they deliberately commit suicide
Runs against group selection –> those that were supposed to commit suicide but did not would have a higher fitness than those that did and the cheating individuals would quickly dominate the population.
In reality, lemmings disperse to limit intraspecific competition. They may accidentally dies.
Multilevel selection
A form of natural selection that may result in circumstances when selection on groups is stronger than selection on the individual
Support for this model is sparse.
Methods for studying behavior
Comparative: Examine differences and similarities between species to understand the evolution of behaviours
Experimental: Manipulate or change a variable to examine how it affects the behaviour of the animals
Observational: Observing traits
