The neural basis of behaviour Flashcards
What is the purpose of the nervous system?
Mechanism to translate information from the environment into behaviour
Describe begging behaviour in herring gull chicks.
Baby gull pecks tip of parents bill
Adult gull regurgitates half digested fish
Baby consumes
Who studied why baby herring gull begging behaviour?
Tinbergen & Perdeck 1950
What were the four conditions in Tinbergen & Perdeck 1950 study on baby herring gulls?
a 2D cardboard cutout gull head with a red dot
a 3D model of a gulls bill with a red dot
a 3D model of a gulls head without the red dot
a 3D red stick with dots on it
What were the results of Tinbergen & Perdeck 1950 study on baby herring gulls?
With a 2D cardboard cutout gull head with a red dot the baby gulls pecked quite a lot
With a 3D model of a gulls bill with a red dot they pecked quite a lot but not as frequently as the 2D cardboard cutout
With a 3D model of a gulls head without the red dot, the frequency of pecking decreased a lot
When presented with a 3D red stick with dots on it the most pecking behavior was observed
What type of behaviour is begging in herring gull chicks?
An innate behaviour
Who studied the Greylag goose?
Tinbergen 1951
What do Greylag geese do when their egg becomes displaced from the nest?
The adult rolls it back using their beak in a continuous movement
What did Tinbergen 1951 find in his experiments with Greylag geese?
If the egg becomes displaced from the nest, adult rolls it back using their beak in a continuous movement
If the egg is removed during this behaviour, the greylag goose continues to complete the movement
Greylag geese will do this with any stimuli that resembles an egg
What is an innate behaviour?
A behaviour pattern that appears in a fully functional way from the first time it is performed
What is a simple cue?
Sign stimulus (a stimulus the animal has seen, smelt or heard)
What is Instinct?
Fixed action pattern (FAP)
How do bats locate food and navigate at night?
Bats use ultrasonic calls – listen for weak ultrasonic echoes reflected back from objects on their flight path
Who studied bats?
Griffin (1958)
Describe Griffin’s (1958) study on captive bats in a dark room?
The bats could navigate around obstacles & catch insects without any issues
After this was observed, he added some ultrasonic frequency noise into the room, immediately the bats started colliding with the obstacles in the room, dropped to the floor and remained there
The addition of low frequency sound had no effect – stimuli did not mask the high frequency echoes