Nature Vs Nurture

Question 1

What are innate qualities and give an example?

Answer 1

Developmentally fixed
Genetic
Behaviour occurs irrespective of upbringing
Shaw (1996) cricket singing

Question 2

What are personal experiences in relation to development and give an example?

Answer 2

Developed throughout life experiences
Controlled by complex inherited neural pathways
Birds singing - have the ability to develop their song

Question 3

What is ontogeny?

Answer 3

Interaction between genetic control and environment

Question 4

What is epigenisis?

Answer 4

Phenotypic trait variations caused by environmental factors that switch genes off and on
P1+E1+G1=P2

Question 5

Give some examples of epigenisis

Answer 5

Japanese quail chicks - interact with each other while in their eggs in order to synchronise hatching - clicking inside the egg stimulates slow developers but can cause decrease in motor skills
Infant rats - rats handled during infancy develop much faster when compared to unhandled control rats

Question 6

Give an example of an experiment that shows environment plays a major role in the development of an animal

Answer 6

Blakemore and Cooper (1970)
Raised kittens in complete darkness other than small amounts of time spent in areas with all horizontal ones or all vertical lines
Tested the kittens after 3 months to check if there was any difference in the motor neurone of the cats
Found that those brought up in horizontal environments could not see vertical lines and only had neurons capable of seeing horizontal and vice versa for those in the vertical conditions
This only occurs within 3 weeks to 3 months of birth with a peak time of around 28 days

Question 7

What are the 2 types of imprinting?

Answer 7

Filial imprinting

Sexual imprinting

Question 8

What is filial imprinting?

Answer 8

Young animal acquires behaviours from parent
Eg incubator hatched geese will imprint on any suitable moving stimulus 13-16 hours after hatching
Sexual imprinting - Young animal learns characteristics of a desirable male
Eg goats raised by sheep only mate with their adoptive species (Kendrick et al 1998)

Question 9

In terms of predators how do they use both instinct and learning?

Answer 9

Instinct - chases moving object

Learning - learns why objects are worth chasing

Question 10

Describe a lab associated with genetic transferring of behaviours

Answer 10

Rothenbuhler 1964 honey bees
Examined colonies of bees and found that some bees would remove caps and dispose of dead or infected larvae (hygienic bees)
Crossed non hygienic bees and hygienic bees and found the hygienic trait to be recessive
Crossed the F1 generation with the P hygienic and found 6/29 colonies were hygienic 9/29 colonies would remove the cap but not the larvae and the remaining 14/29 were non-hygienic
Then took the 14 non hygienic bees and placed them in hives with no caps but infected larvae and found that 7/14 removed the larvae
The hygienic trait is controlled by 2 genes