Animal Behavior Final Exam Study Guide

What are Niko Tinbergen's four questions relating to any behavior found in an animal species?

Mechanism, Development, Survival Value & Evolution

How do animals know what to do?

Mechanism of the behavior

How do animals learn what to do?

Development of the behavior

What do animals gain from the action?

Survival Value of the behavior

How did the behavior begin?

Evolution of the behavior

How did bear hibernation patterns begin?

Evolution of the behavior

What do the bears gain from hibernating each year?

Survival Value of the behavior

How do bears know when and how to prepare for hibernation?

Mechanism of the behavior

Do bears know instinctively how to hibernate, or do they learn it from other bears?

Development of the behavior

Ethology

the study of animal behavior with emphasis on the behavioral patterns that occur in natural environments and interest in the evolutionary basis of behavior.

Comparative Psychology

the study of behavior with emphasis on how learning and environment affect behavior. Experiments are performed under controlled laboratory conditions.

What is necessary for a Fixed Action Pattern?

Sequence of unlearned acts (innate behaviors)

Triggered by a stimulus (appropriate or inappropriate)

Unchangeable once started and carried out to the conclusion

All members of the species do it the same way

vacuum activity

a fixed action pattern displayed without a stimulus to start it (a male ring dove displayed vacuum activity when he was deprived of females because eventually he would perform behaviors for inappropriate objects and the corner of his cage.

sign stimulus

a stimulus that triggers a behavior (color, shape, etc.)

supernormal stimulus

an over exaggerated stimulus (usually larger than normal)

fixed action pattern

innate behavior triggered by a stimulus, once started are carried out to the full conclusion, all members of the species do it the same way

mimicry

the close external resemblance of and organism to a different one, such that the mimic benefits from the mistaken identity

A male tiger swallowtail butterfly constantly patrols the same meadow, over and over. Suddenly he notices the ultra-violet patch of blue that marks the hind wings of the female butterfly. What is the blue color patch?

sign stimulus

The male butterfly approaches the blue-spotted butterfly and repeatedly attempts to mate with her. Nothing will persuade him to stop until the female is no longer visible to him. What is this compulsive behavior called?

fixed action pattern

If a female emerges that has abnormally large blue patches on her wings, she is likely to attract all the males in the area away from any other females. What do we call her unusually large blue patches?

supernormal stimulus

A male butterfly that had this blue mark on the wing might be able to infiltrate another male's territory, since the males would not recognize him as a male. What do we call this phenomenon?

Mimicry Biology

A male butterfly that never encountered a female of his species might eventually attempt to mate with other species of butterflies that were of similar size or color. What do we call this phenomenon?

Vacuum Activity

What was Ivan Pavlov's famous experiment?

He showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time that they were given food.

Conditioned Stimuli

previously neutral stimulus that, through learning, gains the power to cause the response

Unconditioned Stimulus

stimulus that triggers a response reflexively and automatically

Classical Conditioning

The adaptive value helps animals learn to respond not only to stimuli that bring immediate benefits, but also other events which signal the approach of these stimuli (early warning system)

frequency-dependent selection

selection in which the fitness of a phenotype depends on how common the phenotype is in a population

negative-assortment mating

A mechanism of sexual selection by choosing a mate whose phenotypes differ from their own

"hawk and dove" interactions

Hawk vs. Hawk (50/50) Hawk vs. Dove (Hawk always wins)

environmental variation

Differences between organisms caused by environmental factors.

The fact that Atlantic Seagulls may be more aggressive on the coasts of Britain than they are on the coasts of New Jersey, is an example of:

environmental variation

Whether an animal uses vivid displays, or serious fighting, is an example of:

hawk and dove

The only blue goldfish in the pond getting all of the mates, is an example of:

frequency dependent selection

A dark gray pigeon consciously seeking out a light tan mate, is an example of:

negative assortment mating

When two (well-matched) "hawks" meet in a confrontation, what are the odds of either hawk being victorious?

50/50

When a "dove" confronts a "hawk", what are the odds of the dove being victorious?

0. (in the wild, the greatest possible payoff is to be a hawk surrounded by doves)

Game Theory

a model for analyzing the costs and benefits of any

particular behavior.

The ultimate goal of all animal behaviors is

fitness (passing of the genes).

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness to negative stimulus with repeated stimulation

Classical Conditioning

Type of learning in which a stimulus gains the power to cause a response

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response

Shaping

conditioning in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Play

learning often done by young animals that seems to have no purpose but teaches them about their physical world

Social Learning

a theory that suggests we learn social behaviors by watching and imitating others

Latent Learning

is characterized by it suddenness (a light bulb going on above one's head) it occurs rapidly and without any previous trial and error)

A baby chimpanzee picks up an empty coconut shell and tosses it into the air, until it can catch it again using its feet.

play

A frog learns to arrive at your back porch every night when you turn on the outside light because experience has taught him that where there is light, there are insects to eat.

classical conditioning

In order to stop the undesirable behavior, parents learn to ignore a whining child.

extinction

Many people have learned to tune-out the sound of car burglar alarms, since they often go off by mistake, and rarely indicate the presence of a burglar.

Many people have learned to tune-out the sound of car burglar alarms, since they often go off by mistake, and rarely indicate the presence of a burglar.

A trained goldfish discovers that, in order to continue receiving food, it now has to reach the feeder within ten seconds, or it will get nothing.

shaping

The way most human learning takes place.

social learning

How do male BowerBirds attract females?

construct elaborate structures called bowers

In the video Animal Einsteins, we witnessed a learning ability in which chimpanzees are superior to human children. What was this ability?

remembering objects in the room

In the video Animal Einsteins, we witnessed a controlled experiment in which a sea lion looked at cards with symbols on them. What was demonstrated by this experiment?

Sea lions can recognize categories and groups

Alex the Parrot, featured in a few documentaries that we watched could identify objects based on many different qualities such as…

color, shape and texture.

What experimental methods can be used to demonstrate the influence of genes on behavior?

Inbreeding and artificial selection experiments

What is juvenile hormone?

Keeps babies in young stage until they are ready to be adults

What are hormones and how are they associated with animal behavior?

Hormones are responsible for behaviors such as aggression, mating, and parenting