What is behaviour? L1 Flashcards
What is the definition of behavior?
All observable processes by which an animal responds to precieved changes, which are internal or external
What is internal and external in relation to behaviour and how are they measured?
Internal meaning changes in animal
External meaning changes in the environment around the animal or events that take place around the animal
measured by response
List and explain the types of responses based on the function of behaviour
Motor responses: Movement that are in response to something
Semi-automatic acts: not quite completely automatic
Reflex actions: Responding to stimulus which isn’t thought through
Achievement of a goal: Behaving a certain way with a purpose
What are the two levels of study and what do they mean?
Whole animal: individual or group behaviour
Physiological: Nerves, muscles, sense organs, whole animal and individual or groups.
What is the general way to study behaviour?
Organise and identify sequences which are recognizable and repeatable units.
Allow time to study and measure the animal
Who came up with the four whys and what are they?
Niko Tinbergen
Function: What is this behaviour for?
Mechanism: How is the behaviour achieved at the moment?
Development: How did the behaviour develop?
Evolution: Where did the behaviour come from?
Define ultimate and proximate
Ultimate: meaning the causes of behavior of the bigger cause. (Function and evolution)
Proximate: Meaning what caused it to happen today. (mechanism and development)
What is Natal dispersal?
When an animal leaves its birth place
What is Ethology and how does this form of study work?
Ethology: meaning the biological study of behaviour, identifying and investigating different categories.
Study provides detailed description of behaviour, identifying and investigating different categories
Different by hypothosis
Experimental investigations in lab and field
What is comparative psychology as a form of study?
Interested in the similarities and general law of behaviour
Less interested in differences between species
Question how are mechanism and development important
Experiments done in labs with rats or pigeons
What is Behavioural ecology as a form of study?
Dominant since the 60's Assumption of adaptive evolution Four whys The focus is function and evolution Survival of the individual survival of the gene
What is Evolutionary psychology and how does it work as a study?
New study
Main focus is on the effect of evolution and the human mind
Emphasizes the adaptive evolution of information processing and learning
Examines the integration of sensory inputs and behavioural responses
What is a Lek
Communal area
