Animal Behaviour (practice exam questions)

Natural selection is best described as a process through which the frequency of:

a. traits that confer reproductive and/or survival success and that are heritable increase over generations.

b. certain traits increase over evolutionary time in a random fashion.

c. traits that confer reproductive and/or survival success increase over generations.

d. traits that are heritable increase over generations.

e. traits that hinder reproductive and/or survival success and that are not

heritable increase over generations.

a. traits that confer reproductive and/or survival success and that are heritable increase over generations.

Which of the following questions addresses ultimate causation?

a. How does an animal escape predation?

b. What neurobiological mechanisms are involved in predator escape behaviour?

c. Why do some animals secrete noxious chemicals when threatened by a predator?

d. What is the anatomical basis for rapid escape behaviour?

e. What types of neuroendocrine changes occur after successful escape from a predator?

c. Why do some animals secrete noxious chemicals when threatened by a predator?

Which of the following statements about hormones is FALSE?

a. hormonal state can affect the strength & form of a behavioural response

b. hormones and the endocrine system influence behaviour independent of the nervous system

c. hormones are secreted by ductless glands, which comprise the endocrine system

d. hypo- and hyper-secretion of hormones can have dramatic effects on many behaviours

e. hormones can affect the organization of behaviour

b. hormones and the endocrine system influence behaviour independent of the nervous system

Individual learning and cultural transmission differ in which of the following ways?

a. Individual learning alters the behaviour of an organism within a lifetime, while cultural transmission does not.

b. Individual learning can lead to the rapid spread of a behaviour through a population, while cultural transmission cannot.

c. Individual learning involves copying the behaviour of others, while cultural transmission does not.

d. Individual learning does not permit the transmission of information across generations, while cultural transmission does.

e. Individual learning allows behavioural traits to spread quickly through a population, both within an organism's lifetime and across generations, while cultural transmission allows behavioural traits to spread through a population only across generations.

d. Individual learning does not permit the transmission of information across generations, while cultural transmission does.

The three foundations of ethology are:

a. molecular genetics, natural selection, and learning.

b. cultural transmission, natural selection, and learning.

c. neurobiology, anthropology, and psychology.

d. psychology, learning, and cultural transmission.

e. endocrinology, developmental biology, and natural selection.

b. cultural transmission, natural selection, and learning.

Which of the following factors does NOT generate new variation in a population?

a. transposition

b. migration

c. heritability

d. genetic recombination

e. base mutation

c. heritability

Which of the following is NOT required for natural selection to operate?

a. The resource in question must be limited in some way.

b. Variation in the trait of interest must exist.

c. Some mode of inheritance must exist.

d. All alleles in the population must be dominant alleles.

e. Traits influence an individual's relative expected contribution to the next generation.

d. All alleles in the population must be dominant alleles.

10. Voles possessing the long version allele of avpr1a are:

a. more likely to exhibit parental care and more likely to be affiliative.

b. less likely to exhibit parent care and less likely to be affiliative.

c. less likely to exhibit parental care and more likely to be affiliative.

d. more likely to exhibit parental care but less likely to be affiliative.

a. more likely to exhibit parental care and more likely to be affiliative.

Sensitization is the process by which:

a. animals become less likely to exhibit a response to a stimulus over time.

b. animals become more likely to exhibit a response to a stimulus over time.

c. learning to associate one CS with a US blocks the ability to associate another CS with the same US.

d. one event predicts the occurrence of a second event.

e. one event predicts that a second event will not occur.

b. animals become more likely to exhibit a response to a stimulus over time.

Appetitive stimulus is to excitatory conditioning as ___________ is to___________.

a. sensitized stimulus; habituation

b. blocking; positive reinforcement

c. negative stimulus; operant conditioning

d. aversive stimulus; inhibitory conditioning

e. classical conditioning; instrumental conditioning

d. aversive stimulus; inhibitory conditioning

Instrumental conditioning involves:

a. providing positive reinforcement only during conditioning.

b. pairing of an unconditioned and conditioned stimulus.

c. habituating the subjects to certain stimuli.

d. preventing the animal from performing specific behaviours during the conditioning process.

e. positive and/or negative reinforcement of a behavioural response.

e. positive and/or negative reinforcement of a behavioural response.

Which of the following scientists revolutionized the field of instrumental learning by developing an apparatus wherein lever pushing would deliver a reward?

a. B. F. Skinner

b. Ivan Pavlov

c. Edward Thorndike

d. John Garcia

e. Harry Harlow

a. B. F. Skinner

Horizontal cultural transmission refers to a situation in which information is

passed:

a. specifically from mother to daughter.

b. directly from parent to offspring.

c. from adults to unrelated offspring.

d. between individuals of the same age class.

e. between individuals of different species.

d. between individuals of the same age class.

Copying refers to a form of social learning in which:

a. an observer acquires a novel response by witnessing a demonstrator exhibit that response.

b. the mere presence of a model individual facilitates learning in other individuals.

c. an observer repeats the behaviour exhibited by a model individual.

d. the performance of an instinctive pattern of behaviour in one individual acts as a releaser for the same behaviour in other individuals.

e. observers are drawn to an area containing other individuals and subsequently learn on their own.

c. an observer repeats the behaviour exhibited by a model individual.

Cultural transmission can be partitioned into which of the following two

major subcategories?

a. social learning and teaching

b. contagion and local enhancement

c. copying and social learning

d. teaching and imitation

e. teaching and social facilitation

a. social learning and teaching

Social learning, tool use, and innovation in primates are:

a. negatively correlated with executive brain volume corrected for body size.

b. negatively correlated with body size.

c. positively correlated with absolute executive brain volume.

d. positively correlated with executive brain volume corrected for body size.

e. positively correlated with body size corrected for executive brain volume.

c. positively correlated with absolute executive brain volume.

Which factor can be used to discriminate local enhancement and social

facilitation?

a. the distance between an observer and other individuals

b. the actions of other individuals vs. the mere presence of other individuals

c. the behaviour of the observer after observing other individuals

d. whether the observer interacts with a single individual or a group of individuals

e. whether the observer's response is innate or learned

b. the actions of other individuals vs. the mere presence of other individuals

Cultural transmission is best defined as:

a. a process by which past experience modifies current behaviour.

b. a means by which information is transmitted between individuals in primate groups.

c. a system of information transfer that influences an individual's phenotype via social learning or teaching.

d. the transfer of information from experienced individuals to naïve individuals.

e. the genetic transmission of traits across generations.

c. a system of information transfer that influences an individual's phenotype via social learning or teaching.

Intersexual selection is to intrasexual selection as:

a. mate choice copying is to runaway selection.

b. female mate choice is to male- male combat.

c. male- male combat is to sensory exploitation.

d. handicap principle is to female mate choice.

e. good genes models are to sensory exploitation.

b. female mate choice is to male- male combat.

Which of the following statements does NOT apply to Höglund and colleagues'

studies on mate- choice copying in black grouse?

a. Females synchronize their trips to male territories.

b. Stuffed "dummy" females were constructed to assess whether females prefer males that had mated previously.

c. Their studies suggest that younger, inexperienced females show a greater propensity to copy than older, experienced females.

d. A single male grouse monopolizes mating opportunity on the lek.

e. Females copy choices of other females only when the courting male is of superior quality.

e. Females copy choices of other females only when the courting male is of superior quality.

Fluctuating asymmetry refers to:

a. asymmetrical traits that confer a fitness advantage in the form of increased reproductive success.

b. deviations from perfect symmetry that fluctuates from the right to the left

sides of the body throughout an organism's lifetime.

c. random deviations from perfect symmetry of the body on its right and

left sides of the body.

d. any trait that indicates the overall health of an individual.

e. deviations from perfect symmetry that result from an extremely stable environment during development.

c. random deviations from perfect symmetry of the body on its right and

left sides of the body.

Insects displaying female defense polygyny exhibit which of the following characteristics?

a. short lives

b. closely grouped together in space

c. low fecundity

d. mating shortly after becoming adults

e. all of the above

e. all of the above

In a polyandrous mating system, you would expect:

a. males to have sole access to a single female.

b. both males and females to have access to multiple mates.

c. males to have access to several females but females to have only one mate.

d. females to have sole access to several males.

e. females to have sole access to a single male.

d. females to have sole access to several males.

Which of the following statements does NOT relate to sibling rivalry in egret

chicks?

a. Eggs hatch asynchronously.

b. Successful acquisition of a regurgitated food bolus depends on a chick's

vertical positioning in the nest.

c. First- hatched chicks are competitively inferior to second- hatched chicks.

d. Age- related dominance hierarchies exist among chicks.

e. Larger chicks obtain significantly more food than smaller chicks.

c. First- hatched chicks are competitively inferior to second- hatched chicks.

When coalitions exist for long periods of time, they are referred to as:

a. alliances.

b. colonies.

c. herds.

d. mutualisms.

e. societies.

a. alliances.

Mobbing refers to an antipredator tactic in which prey:

a. behave in an erratic manner so as to confuse the predator.

b. adopt cryptic coloration patterns in order to avoid attack.

c. retreat from the predator in large groups.

d. attack the predator either alone or in groups.

e. produce alarm calls to warn group members.

d. attack the predator either alone or in groups.

When should natural selection most strongly favour genetically coded predator recognition mechanisms?

a. in dynamics environments where predator types constantly change

b. in stable environments with a vast number of predator types

c. when predators can be identified easily by colour patterns

d. when few predators exist at any one time but the types of predator constantly change

e. when the number of predatory threats are few and constant through time

e. when the number of predatory threats are few and constant through time

Of the following conditions, which one favours staying on a territory to help raise young?

a. Available territories are abundant.

b. Breeding opportunities outside the natal territory are abundant.

c. Few competitors exist outside the natal territory.

d. Breeding opportunities outside the natal territory are scarce.

e. When an individual is distantly related, or unrelated, to the young.

d. Breeding opportunities outside the natal territory are scarce.

Abiotic factors that can influence the habitat an animal chooses include:

a. availability and location of mates.

b. distribution of prey items.

c. availability of shelter.

d. distribution of putative predators.

e. parasite density.

c. availability of shelter.

Territorial defense is economically feasible when:

a. the benefits of defense are approximately equal to the costs of defense.

b. the benefits of defense are greater than the costs of defense.

c. the benefits of defense are lower than the costs of defense.

d. the benefits of defense vastly outweigh the costs of defense.

e. there are no costs to territorial defense.

b. the benefits of defense are greater than the costs of defense.

Which of the following factors has NOT been implicated as a means by which fish migrate back to their natal stream as adults?

a. magnetic compass

b. learning via exposure to chemical cues

c. celestial cues

d. food availability

e. drifting currents

d. food availability

Stress hormones like corticosterone typically:

a. impair spatial memory.

b. enhance spatial memory just a little bit.

c. increase per for mance in spatial memory tasks by orders of magnitude.

d. cause the animal to become completely immobile and unable to perform spatial tasks.

e. have no effect on spatial memory tasks.

a. impair spatial memory.

*Leaf- cutter ants use __________ for long- range communication and use _________ for close- range communication.

a. visual displays; pheromones

b. stridulations; visual displays

c. visual displays; electrical impulses

d. pheromones; stridulations

e. pheromones; pheromones

d. pheromones; stridulations

Potential benefits of predator inspection behaviour include:

a. identifying whether a predator is a potential danger.

b. assessing the motivational state of the predator.

c. announcing to a predator that it has been seen.

d. obtaining information on how close the predator is to one's group.

e. all of the above

e. all of the above

What is the single most important question that a researcher must consider before labelling certain behaviours as personalities?

a. Do individuals consistently exhibit the same patterns of behaviour?

b. Do individuals exhibit the same behaviour pattern as others in the

population?

c. Do individuals within a population differ in their behavioural repertoires?

d. Do certain individuals behave more economically than others?

e. Do some individuals invest more energy in one type of behaviour than

others?

a. Do individuals consistently exhibit the same patterns of behaviour?

Proactive coping styles are associated with:

a. immobility and low aggression levels.

b. active responses to problems encountered in the environment.

c. withdrawal from problems encountered in the environment.

d. territorial control and aggression.

e. b and d

e. b and d