Test 1 Flashcards
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection had three main principles. State 3 principles we discussed and explain them
Variation: members of a species differ in characteristics
Hereditary: parents will pass on distinctive characteristics to offspring allowing the “most fit” to survive
Differential reproduction: because of the distinctive characteristics some individual will have a greater chance of survival
What is the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?
classical conditioning involves associating an involuntary response and stimulus, while operant conditioning is about assosiating a voluntary behaviour with a consequence
What is the difference between positive punishment and negative reinforcement?
negative reinforcement encourages a behaviour by removing an unwanted or unplesant stimulus while positive punishment discourages a behaviour by introducing and unwanted or unpleasant stimulus
From the definitions in lecture notes and discussion in class, state one main point that is common in all the definitions of a domestic animal
human control
Which common domestic animal is generally considered to have been the first animal domesticated?
Dog 10000 bc
What are the seven criteria for domestication
Value to humans (food, hunting, draft)
Diet (large herbivores offer substantial energy use plus safety advantages over carnivores
Growth (rapidly reach their desired size)
Breeding (must breed in captivity)
Calmness (little tendency to panic when startled)
Deposition (amenable and tractable)
Socialbility (a social structure and hierarchy favors domestication)
What are the four principal characteristics that the domestic animal exhibits (effects of domestication)? Hint: there are four principals
- It’s breeding is under human control
- It provides a product or service useful to man
- It is tame
- It has been selected away from the wild type
We discussed six changes that animals which have been domesticated have undergone. List the six changes.
Increased colour variability
Paedomorphosis
Brain reduction
Docility
Earlier maturation
Verarmung der merkwelt
Which of the six changes has had a dramatic impact on health conditions currently being experienced by our companion animals?
Colour varability had the most dramatic impact on helath ocnditions currently being experienced by our companion animals. when we focus on colour variablility we are only focusing on teh phonotypes and often ignoring the genotypes which could mean there are health issues in the genes that we cannot see
Define neoteny
The retention of juvenile features in the adult animal
Define merkwelt
An animals world is partitioned into it’s what it perceives (knowledge)
Define umwelt.
An animals world is partitioned into it’s what it experiences (environment)
Define werkwelt
An animals world is partitioned into it’s what it does (action)
Define feral.
Animals who went through the domestication process and now we have reverted back to the wild periods
Define innate.
Genetically controlled behaviour. Does not have to be learned because it is genetically passed down
Define learned behaviour
Behaviour that is changed as a result of experience
Define pedomorphosis.
retention of juvinile charcters into the adult stage
Define novelty.
The quality of being new, original, or unusual
Compare and contrast redirected behaviour with displayed behaviour?
Displacement and behaviour and redirected behaviour are similar because they both occur out of frusteration when they aren’t able to do what they want to do. And different because during displacement behaviour a completely different behaviour than originally planned and redirection is when the act is carried out but on something other than the original target
Give an example of ‘shaping’ a behaviour as a training tool.
When prompting a puppy to sit, it may initially sit crooked, but you should still reward that behaviour.
Explain your understanding of extinction, what it is and how it happens; and the concept of an extinction burst.
When a learned response is no longer being practiced or reinforced it gradually becomes lost due to lack of reinforcement
What is the concept of extinction burst?
The phenomenon of previously reinforced or learned behaviour temporarily increasing when the reinforcement for the behaviour is removed
Identify two categories of associative learning.
Operate learning and classical learning
Provide an example for positive punishment
If a dog jumps up and you knee them in the chest
animal behaviour is centered around what?
the ability to move
behaviour reacts as a reaction to what?
a stimulus
Define motivation
the internal processes which control (arose and direct) behaviour
define taxis
a automatic movement toward or away from a stimulus. this is a directed movement
what are the three types of taxis
phototaxis - weather changes like migration
chemotasix - moving toward chemical signals
geotaxis - moving toward a location
controls of motivation
negative feedback and feedforward
page 4
what is appeditive behaviour
goal-seeking behaviour
docility: sensory centers reduced in the order:
optic, acoustic, olfactory
whats a good example of earlier maturation
young horses. they have the same length legs as adult horses
how do we know an animal has learned something?
when behaviour changes, eitehr temporarily or permanently, we can assume that learning has taken place on some physical level
overt behaviour
when you see someone actually doing the thing learned. example, a kid riding a bike, we can assume they have learned that skill because we are seeing it
key components of definined learning
learning is inferred from performance
learning involves a change in the mental state of an organism
learning stems from experience
learing is relatively permanent
learning is a change in the potential to behave
