Quiz on Communication Flashcards
What are the four types of sensory receptors:
- Chemoreceptors: chemical signals
- Mechanoreceptors: changes in the environment
- Photoreceptors: detects light
- Thermoreceptors: temperature
What factors might vary in the cells of the nervous system of these caterpillars that cause their feeding behavior to vary?
Specify which cells, and which characteristics you’re thinking of.
Chemoreceptors, they taste things with their feet
Thermoreceptors-touch and vibration
Connect them to the five senses:
-chemoreceptors
-mechanoreceptors
-photoreceptors
-thermoreceptors
- taste and smell
- touch and hearing
- sight
- touch
Notice the variation in sensory receptors. Why do you think there is so much structural variation?
They serve different purposes
Communication
transmission of a signal from a sender to a receiver
Signal
something the animal produces that has evolved to carry a specific message to another animal; traits evolved for communication
Give an example of a signal that is behavioral, but does not involve words.
Waving your arms
Give an example of a signal that is morphological (having to do with shapes, sizes or colors of body parts).
Toxic colors in frogs signaling that they are poisonous
What can suggest something is a signal?
Is it going from a living sender to a living receiver?
Is the information in the message specific?
Does the receiver have a predictable response?
abiotic
non-living
Consider the example of the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. This certainly contains information for an observer because that noise indicates that the wind is blowing. However, the wind is abiotic.
If we consult our definition of a signal, we see that it is something that evolves to carry a specific message. Non-living things do not evolve, and can therefore not produce signals.
was is the difference between taste and smell
Taste involves touching the chemical on a surface; smelling involves encountering the chemical in the air!
But chemoreception is not limited to sensing chemicals in the external environment.
Mode (of communication):
classification according to the kind of sensory receptor used to receive the signal
types of modes of communication
Auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory
Auditory
mechanoreceptors, touch and hearing
Visual
Photoreceptors
Tactile
Mechanoreceptors-touch and hearing
Thermoreceptors-temperature
Olfactory
Chemoreceptors-smelling
Gustatory
Chemoreceptor-taste
Auditory limitation
if they have ears
Visual limitation
suddenly dark environment, has to evolve its auditory responses i order to be able to survive
Tactile limitation
In order for communication by touch to evolve, the communicating individuals need to live at high enough density that they actually encounter each other in order to send and receive touch signals.
Olfactory limitation
windy environment making it hard to track down the smell
ask a living thing what us prefers
bioassay
Sometimes we can overhear communication that is not meant for us. Give an example
The wind blowing through the trees shows it is a windy day, however, the wind did not evolve to provide the information that it is windy outside
Discreteness
set of individual units such as words or sounds that can be used to communicate, distinct or hidden
Grammer
System of rules to combine units to communicate
Productivity
concept that can be produced through sounds, actually combining them
Displacement
talk about something somewhere else or something remembered
notes on bee video
- solar compass
- can know changes in seasons and altitude
- the degree of the waggle dance shows which way the bees leave the chive where the flower is, direction and distance even when it is windy
- distance comes from how much energy they have to use to get to the flower
- the two variables are the orientation of the dance which explains which way to travel away from the sun and how long they dance which shows how far away the flower is
