test 1

steps of the scientific method

observation

a noted pattern, event, or phenomenon that can come from direct experience in the field (natural environment) or be found in the scientific literature

research question

a question we want to explore through research or scientific inquiry. comes after the observation. based on a careful review of the literature

example of observation and RQ based on robin abundance and food availability

O: some yards had many AMRO feeding in them while others had very few. RQ: why is there variation in the number of robins feeding in yards

research hypothesis

a proposed explanation for an observation that leads to a testable prediction. based on current observations/ what is already known

alternate hypothesis

H1. the statistical hypothesis that there is a significant effect or relationship bw the variables being tested

null hypothesis

H0. the statistical hypothesis that there is no significant effect or relationship bw the variable. any observed difference is due to chance

statistically significant

a result is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone, based on a pre-set probability threshold (commonly p<0.05)

example observation, research question, hypothesis, and prediction for robin abundance and food availability

AMRO methods simple

• counted number of robins at same time of day in each yard

• quantified food avail to robins in each yard by examining many areas

• poured a yellow ground mustard seed and water mix into each sampling area

• counted number of earthworms that emerged in each sampling area

research question and hypothesis for female chimps

do pregnant and lactating chimpanzees alter their feeding behaviour to compensate for increased energy demands of reproduction?

importance of a control group

it isolates the variable you are testing and it establishes a baseline for comparison

designing an experiment

using a paradigm and methods appropriate to the research question, incorporating carefully designed controls, obtain ethics approval for the study

data collection simple

collect data with careful attention to random sampling and random assignment

data analysis simple

analyze data and formulate interpretations using appropriate statistical tools

science communication

communicate results in the form of published articles and presentation at scientific conferences (peer review)

assuming the null hypothesis is true

a p-value measures the probability of obtaining a result as extreme as, or more extreme than, the observed result. a non-significant p-value DOES NOT mean no effect, just rejected

observational, experimental, and comparative methods for studying behaviour

manipulate or change a variable to examine how it affects the behaviour of the animal. use independent and dependent variables, and control groups

independent variable

variable that is changed by researcher (x)

dependent variable

variable that is measured in response to change in independent variable (y)

control group

group that does not experience manipulation

methods for chimpanzee study

classify adult females into 3 categories: pregnant, lactating, and nonpregnant nonlactating. record the feeding behaviour of these females

results and conclusions of chimpanzee study

female chimpanzees appear to alter their diet to include more high calorie fruit when pregnant and lactating to increase their caloric intake

some challenges to studying animals

reactivity (animals reacting to humans being there and observing, thereby changing behaviour), and external validity (humans generalizing one population to all populations)

the 3 Rs of animal research

before using animals for research, use these to answer whether an animal is required to suffer for this study. replacement, reduction, and refinement

replacement

one of the 3 Rs of animal research. encourages use of computer modeling, videotapes, or other approaches in place of actual research animals in the laboratory

reduction

the 3 Rs of animal research. promotes limiting the number of animals subject to disturbance in research or teaching

refinement

the 3 Rs of animal research. involves improving procedures and techniques to minimize pain and stress for animals

Cave paintings

some of the oldest evidence of how humans viewed animals. Lascaux in France, and Altamira in Spain

current era of animal behaviour

watching animals in zoos. considered somewhat unethical as animals should live in the wild, but also good for endangered animals. as well, more than half of canadian households (60%) own at least one dog or cat

what is behaviour

any internally coordinated, externally visible pattern of activity that responds to changing external or internal conditions. behavioural responses to changing conditions

internally coordinated

internal information processing

externally visible

observed and measured. not always based on the naked eye, can also be by other means such as microscopes

examples of defining behaviour

aggressive encounters among male giraffes due to changes in hormones (change in season, no longer mating season), and caterpillar eating due to sensory processing allowing for finding location of food such as leaves (depletion of internal resources thus the need for food)

ethogram

lists of how animals behave and interact with their environment, a tool for measuring specific behaviours, provides data for studies in ethology, explore scientific questions about animal behaviour, translates behaviour into numbers.

behaviours in an ethogram

list of behaviours can range form one to an extensive catalogue. they should be well defined to enable other observers to record the same thing in the same way to avoid confusion about what category a behaviour falls into. it is species specific

ethogram design steps

choose species, review literature, observe animals, take careful notes, summarize what you observed, select behaviours that are related to your hypothesis, design your ethogram, and execute your experiment

sampling rule

which subject to observe, where to observe, and when to observe (including season and time of day)

type of sampling

ad libitum, focal, scan, and behaviour

ad libitum sampling

generally or randomly watching to get an idea

focal sampling

only looking at one specific individual of a species

scan sampling

lot of experiments use this, choose intervals of time over a long period of time. eg: 5 minutes a day for a year

behaviour sampling

looking at only one particular behaviour and seeing how many times the animal performs that behaviour

instantaneous scan sample

method used in behavioural research to collect data by observing a group of individuals at pre-determined intervals and recording their behaviour at that exact moment

example of how an ethogram looks

don’t memorize, just know general idea

results of measuring behaviour in elephants

elephants spent about ¼ of their time feeding. stereotypic behaviour negatively correlated with feeding behaviour. colcluded that using widely spaced feeders to supply food slowly and at random times could reduce the frequency of stereotypic behaviour

study on the anthropomorphism of dogs

Alexandra Horowitz designed an experiment to examine the guilty look in dogs. each dog was exposed to 4 experimental treatments. at the start of the trial, the owner showed the dog a treat, told dog not to eat it. the researchers either gave the treat and dog ate it (so disobeying command), or they removed the treat (so dog could not disobey command). the owners were told that either thing happened even if it didnt, and were told to act accordingly. The dogs acted guilty if owners scolded them even if they were not actually guilty, showing that we anthropomorphize them, although this does not completely reject that

Wolf Spider Study

H0 is that males do not use the presence and behaviour of other males as a cue to locate receptive females, Ha is that they do- that the presence and behaviour of a rival male will cause the searching male to move in the rival’s direction, search for a female, and begin courtship tapping. focal males were tested for their reactions to (1) visual cues only (2) seismic cues only (3) both cues at the same time. they prompted the males to tap by giving them female silk w chemical cues. recorded 3 mins before, during, after. found that treatments had no effect on chemoexplore or jerky tap behaviour. accepted the null hypothesis. they then saw their Ha out in the wild and realized their study used males grown in captivity

Squirrel nut study

researchers hypothesized that food carrying might represent a trade-off bw feeding in safety (tree) and obtaining high energy intake rates. created two parameters in their study: energy intake rate and probability of being killed by a predator. model assumes that squirrels fitness increases as energy intake rate increases and as probability of being killed decreases (p of being killed higher on ground). two predictions: larger food items means more often carried to tree (more handling time). second is that as distance bw food patch and tree increases, indiv should reduce carrying behaviour

bighorn sheep

examine how male mating tactics affect the time they could spend foraging. 2 mating strategies exhibited: dominant males guard a single estrous ewe form competitors. subordinate males will attempt to chase estrous ewes to separate them from a dominant male and then try to mate w a sperated ewe. researcher asked whether the tending behaviour used by dominants constrained their foraging time more than the coursing behaviour used by subordinates; she predicts that tending would be more time consuming and thus constrain foraging behaviour more than coursing

jumping tadpoles

H: jumping is an antipredator behaviour. P: tadpoles will jump most often from puddles that contain a predator. M: collected tadpoles and dragonfly naiad predators from the field, acclimated tadpoles in individual aquaria in the lab for few days, created experimental arenas w sandy bottoms to simulate puddles. R: jumping behaviour was most common in the predator present treatment, and for second experiment, survival was highest in the nonscreened arena

burrowing behaviour in mice

evolution of burrowing behaviour of mice sp. they exhibit a wide range of burrowing behaviours. they first constructed a phylogeny, next gave each behaviours of how they each measure different aspects of burrow construction. they places mice in soil and allowed them to build burrows then filled a cast to see how it is built. they found much variation bw burrowing of the 7 sp

primary literature

peer review process, primary research articles in peer-reviewed journals, dissertations, technical reports, and conference proceedings. original source of scientific information

secondary literature

review process, monographs (books dealing with specific areas of research), literature reviews, magazine articles. report that summarizes and interprets the primary literature

peer review

editors of scientific journals use experts to help decide whether to accept or reject research

questions to determine if a publication is peer reviewed

1. what is the name of the publication, and is it endorsed by a scientific society?

2. who are the authors and their institutional affiliations?

3. Is it written in the standard scientific format?

4. Does the publication indicate that it is peer-reviewed?

types of variables

types of data distribution

class of ethologists

Nikolaas Tinbergen, Karl von Frisch, and Konrad Lorenz

Timbergen’s 4 questions

2 proximate and 2 ultimate.

1. What mechanism caused the behaviour?

2. How does the behaviour develop?

3. What is the function of the behaviour?

4. How did the behaviour evolve?

proximate explanations

focus on understanding immediate causes of behaviour

ultimate explanations

focus on understanding the ultimate (evolutionary) causes of a behaviour

nocturnal foraging in bats proximate and ultimate questions

Proximate

1. echolocation

2. born without ability to do this, have to learn from parents, perhaps changes in form of ear or muscle to perform these things, and/or learn from parents. pattern of being more active at night from internal click.
   Ultimate

3. communication

4. parent to child

golden bamboo lemur

feeds primarily on bamboo shoots that contain cyanide, they feed on it for the high

attractive vs unattractive

bonobos vs chimpanzees

 

Bonobos have much different behaviours than chimps, who they are closely related to

 

For example, males are not the main sex

 

So they looked at how their hormones and hierarchy works

methods for studying behaviour

observational, experimental, and comparative

observational method

an approach in which scientists observe and record the behaviour of an organism without manipulating the environment of the animal. eg used to construct ethograms

experimental method

an approach in which scientists manipulate or change a variable to examine how it affects the behaviour of an animal. eg: tadpole jumping experiment

comparative method

an approach that examines differences and similarities between species to understand the evolution of behavioural traits. eg: burrowing mice experiment

ancestral traits

plesiomorphic; found in common ancestor of two or more species

derived traits

apomorphic; found in more recently evolved species and not present in common ancestor

sister species

two species that are more closely related to one another tan to any other species

charles darwin

a researcher in animal behaviour. talked about aggressiveness of some animals compared to humans

Georges Romanes

introduced the idea of simple protozoans to complex animals, as long as animal can change behaviour. relating animal behaviour to a human

C Loyd Morgan

tried to oppose Romanes opinion that animal and human behaviours are similar. simplest psych processes for these animals when experimenting on them

Margaret F Washburn and Edward L Thorndike

transformed field of animal behaviour, changing the ways we could conduct research. introduced multiple trials and pushed this idea. she was the first woman to receieve a phD in psych. introduced sensory capabilities in animals

John B Watson behaviourism

introduced behaviourism. role of environment on behaviour. the mind, if it existed was irrelevant. the mind-body problem was of no interest to a scientist. showed machines measuring data to take away human bias

BF Skinner behhaviourism

a form of learning in which the consequences of behaviour are manipulated in order to increase or decrease the frequency of a response or to shape an entirely new response (reward increases, punish decreases)

evolutionary psychology

seeks to understand human thinking and behaviour that assumes that natural selection has shaped brain architecture and thought processes in an adaptive manner

cognitive ethology

seeks to understand how natural selection acts on mental processes and cognition

behavioural ecology

focuses on the ecology and evolution of behaviour and its fitness consequences

Darwins conditions required for evolution by natural selection

1. Variation exists among individuals in a population in the traits they possess

2. Individuals’ different traits are, at least in part, heritable

3. Traits confer differences in survivorship and reproduction, a measure called fitness

natural selection provided 3 key answers

1. descent with modification (we all come from the same ancestor but changed due to environment)

2. adaptive function (favourable in its environment)

3. united all species into one grand tree of descent (incl humans)

measures of heritability

parent-offspring regression analysis and selection experiment method

parent-offspring regression analysis

examines the similarity between parents and their offspring in terms of the traits they possess. if individual is highly aggressive and this is heritable, we expect child to be aggressive too

selection experiment method

different groups of individuals are subjected to differential selection on the trait in question. take two groups of the same species as the testable, and breed together a specific trait

Exploration in great blue tits

q: is exploratory behaviour in great tits a heritable trait? placed infividuals in an aviary that contained 5 fake trees. recorded the number of flights and hops in aviary in first 2 mins as index of exploratory behaviour. result: parent--offspring regression on exploratory behaviour was +ve

maternal defense in mice

Q: is maternal defense behaviour in mice heritable? conducted parent offspring regression and selection experiment of maternal aggression toward intruders. equal M and F; half chosen as control; tested F defense behaviour few days post partum (placed unfamiliar M in F cage, recorded duration of F attack on M); in selection line, only F w longest attack duration mated (control had random mating); continued for few gens. R: +ve relationship bw mother defense score and daughter defense score and her daughters score; Conclusion: maternal defense behaviour is a heritable trait