play

Question 1

play definition

Answer 1

-play is all motor activity performed postnatally that appears to be purposeless, in which motor patterns from other contexts may often be used in modified forms and altered temporal sequencing
-can be problems around this definition

Question 2

what can repetitive pacing show in a zoo animal

Answer 2

-boredom
-frustration
-lacks purpose

Question 3

why may play seem ‘apparently purposeless’

Answer 3

-observer may fail to decipher the immediate benefit of play
-the true benefit (function) may not occur until much later
-the benefits may be multiple and confounding

Question 4

costs of play

Answer 4

-energetic
-reduced vigilance
-increased predation
-risk of injury
-85% of prey get killed by predators whilst playing

Question 5

taxonomic occurrence of play

Answer 5

-mammals- especially carnivores, ungulates and rodents is where play mainly occurs
-young rats play a lot

Question 6

play in meerkats

Answer 6

-lynda Sharpe tested several ideas such as subsequent fighting success, reduce aggression, social cohesion and dispersal partnerships in meerkats but none of these were a reason for play
-only 6% of the waking day spent playing
-when they did play it was chaos
-they tried painting rings on their tails to try and relate behaviour to individuals
-tested meerkats because they’re easy to study and friendly with humans

Question 7

is play related to happiness

Answer 7

• young animals playing were happy- but doesn’t mean they’re showing happiness and we don’t know if they’re actually having fun as we can’t measure happiness

Question 8

what’s an ethogram

Answer 8

inventory of animals actions (any kind of behaviour

Question 9

what are the 3 types of play

Answer 9

-object play
-locomotor play
-social play

Question 10

object play

Answer 10

-involves inanimate object
-can force parts of social play
-best known in juveniles
-is it practice or do children just have more time
-ravens play with novel objects- specifically edible items
-scientist Heinrich recorded all items that ravens encountered and played with then added 40 novel items they hadn’t played with before
-study showed raven was interested more in the items which were edible

Question 11

object play with predators

Answer 11

-cats play with rodent prey
-gulls drop-catching stones or tired migrants (supporting idea that play is practice for hunting )
-kingfishers catching sticks

Question 12

locomotor play

Answer 12

-2 hypotheses: it provides ‘lay of the land’, and provides exercise and development of motor skills

Question 13

social play

Answer 13

-hypotheses are that it enhances social skills, that it facilitates long term relationships and enhances cognitive skills
-play fighting in mammals- example in children especially boys
-gorillas flash their teeth in play fighting if the fighting gets too rough to show that they’re still playing
-other social play signals are: head (shaking, ear, eye movement, open mouth), vocalisation, tail (posture, wagging), ambulatory (gambling, stalking, shaking), body posture (bow, roll on back, crouch and stare, outstretched paw)

Question 14

why is playing fair beneficial

Answer 14

-gains of cheating are low e.g. exclusion from groups

Question 15

general play theory from Marek Spinka

Answer 15

play creates novel situations and therefore enables animals to deal better with unexpected events later in life
-rates deprived of play respond negatively to the unexpected

Question 16

problems with testing hypothesis of play

Answer 16

-if you deprive animals of play of deprive them of other things too- logistics and ethics
-therefore difficult to design an experiment