Animal Behavior Module 1

What is Aristotle’s "Chain of Being"?

A linear view of life progressing from simple organisms (like sponges) to the most complex (humans).

How did the "Chain of Being" view behavior?

Species closer to humans have more complex behaviors; species further away have simpler behaviors.

What is the approach to the study of animal behavior that is focused primarily on the evolution and function of behavior?

Ethology

Which form of conditioning involves an animal finding a solution to a problem accidentally at first and then the experiment is repeated to see if the subject learned and would be able to find the solution at an increasingly faster rate in successive trials?

Operant

What is an extended period of time during development when an individual is more receptive to specific types of environmental stimuli.

Critical period

What is a behavior where an individual indicates by an act or posture that it will not challenge a dominant individual in a social group?

Submissive behavior

Which form of mimicry is when the predator will mimic a signal that will either attract the prey or allow the predator to be ignored by the prey?

Aggressive mimicry

What is defined as an animal’s ability to find its way using landmarks?

Piloting

What is the term for a neuron or neural network that produce rhythmic patterned motor outputs without repairing sensory feedback?

Central Pattern Generator

Who wrote Principles of Psychology (1855)?

Herbert Spencer

What did Herbert Spencer propose about behavior?

A model similar to the Chain of Being (e.g., apes have more complex behavior than monkeys).

What mechanism did Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) introduce?

Natural selection (used to explain behavioral differences between species).

What was the focus of Darwin’s The Descent of Man... (1871)

Sexual selection and its role in behavior.

Give an example of a trait driven by sexual selection.

A peacock's bright, heavy tail (gives a mating advantage despite survival costs).

What was a major flaw in Darwin's Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (1873)?

It was highly anthropomorphic (attributed human emotions to animals).

What did Darwin conclude about brain and behavioral complexity?

Behavioral complexity increases in direct proportion to brain complexity.

Which two subdisciplines did Charles Darwin help found?

Ethology and Comparative Psychology.

Who is George Romanes?

A founder of Comparative Psychology who argued for the evolutionary continuity of the mind from animals to humans.

• What did Jacques Loeb argue about animal behavior (1918)?

Behavior is purely instinctual and made of tropisms (physiochemical movements toward/away from a stimulus)

Where did early Ethology originate?

Europe

Where did early Comparative Psychology originate?

United States

What was the primary study setting for early Ethology?

Field studies (observing natural behaviors).

What was the primary study setting for early Comparative Psychology?

Laboratory studies (tightly controlled variables).

What type of behaviors did early Ethology focus on?

Innate / inherited behaviors.

What type of behaviors did early Comparative Psychology focus on?

Learned behaviors.

What animal groups did early Ethology primarily study?

Birds, fishes, and insects.

What animal group did early Comparative Psychology primarily study?

Mammals (especially lab rats).

Who formulated the "Four Questions" of animal behavior?

Niko Tinbergen (1963).

What are Tinbergen's Four Questions?

1. Mechanism

2. Development

3. Survival Value

4. Evolution

Which three ethologists won the Nobel Prize?

Niko Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, and Karl von Frisch.

What is the "Comparative Method" in ethology?

Studying a behavior across closely related species to understand its evolutionary history (phylogeny).

What animal ritual illustrates the Comparative Method?

The nuptial gift behavior of the Empidid fly.

What is the ultimate evolutionary step of the Empidid fly's nuptial gift (H. sartor)?

Presenting a completely empty silk cocoon to turn off the female's predatory instinct.

Define a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP).

An innate motor response triggered by a stimulus that always continues to completion, even if the stimulus is removed.

How did Lorenz & Tinbergen prove FAPs in the Greylag Goose?

If an egg rolls out of the nest, the goose continues the rolling motion even if the egg is pulled away mid-action.

What is a Sign Stimulus?

The environmental trigger that activates a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP).

What is a Social Releaser?

A sign stimulus that comes from a member of the same species (conspecific).

What is a "Chain of Reactions"?

A complex sequence of behaviors where each FAP triggers the next FAP (often between two different animals).

What animal behavior famously uses a Chain of Reactions?

The multi-step courtship dance of the Three-Spine Stickleback fish.

What is Morgan’s Canon?

The rule that animal behavior must always be explained in the simplest possible way (do not assume human-like minds without proof).

Who pioneered Operant Conditioning using "puzzle boxes"?

E. L. Thorndike

Define Operant Conditioning.

Trial-and-error learning where an animal pairs a voluntary action with a reward or consequence.

What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect?

Behaviors that lead to positive rewards are more likely to be repeated.

Who discovered Classical Conditioning?

Ivan Pavlov

Define Classical Conditioning

Learning that pairs a neutral stimulus (e.g., bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., food) to create an involuntary reflex.

What is the core rule of Behaviorism?

Study only what can be directly observed and quantitatively measured; ignore unmeasurable mental states.

How did Skinner Boxes measure learning?

By tracking the number of times a lab rat pressed a lever for food over a unit of time.

Who was the first physiological psychologist?

Jean Pierre Flourens (1825).

What experimental method did Flourens pioneer?

Ablations (localized brain lesions) to see which areas control specific behaviors.

What did Karl Lashley conclude about memory location in the brain?

Memories are not localized to one spot; they are widely distributed throughout the cerebral cortex.

Who is the father of Behavioral Endocrinology?

Frank Beach

What did Frank Beach study?

How the endocrine system (hormones) influences maternal and sexual behaviors.

What is Behavioral Ecology?

The study of the evolutionary costs and benefits of behaviors (foraging, mating) in relation to the environment.

What is Sociobiology?

The application of evolutionary theory to social behaviors.

Define Inclusive Fitness (W.D. Hamilton).

The total sum of an organism's genetic success via its own offspring plus the offspring of its relatives.

What are the two components of Inclusive Fitness?

Direct Fitness (own offspring) and Indirect Fitness (helping nondescendent kin).

Who wrote Sociobiology (1975)?

E.O. Wilson.

According to E.O. Wilson, what must you understand to know a species' social structure?

Its population demography (size, density, vital statistics).

What is Behavioral Genomics?

The use of molecular techniques to find the specific genes or gene-activated proteins that cause a behavior.

What is Behavioral Biology?

A modern version of ethology that explains behaviors by looking at their direct impact on Darwinian fitness.

What is Applied Animal Behavior?

Using behavioral knowledge to practical ends (managing pets, livestock, zoo animals, and wildlife).

Why did early humans need to study animal behavior?

It made them more efficient hunters and better able to avoid being hunted themselves

What specific animal did Darwin most commonly observe for his book Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals?

Vultures

What was the focus of the books published by Darwin's student, George Romanes?

Supporting the evolutionary continuity of behavior from one species to the next.

Define Positive vs. Negative Tropism

• Positive: Physiochemical movement toward a stimulus.

• Negative: Physiochemical movement away from a stimulus.

Why did early Ethologists strongly prefer field studies over labs?

To observe natural behaviors free from human-caused artifacts

According to Ethologists, why is it best to study a behavior in the habitat where it evolved?

Because observing the natural habitat makes it much easier to deduce the behavior's true survival function.

What was the unique experimental exception regarding Konrad Lorenz's study settings?

He did many experiments in his own backyard, recreating the animal's natural habitat triggers inside a controlled setting.

What is an example of a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP) being triggered under inappropriate circumstances?

Face washing in a "confused" mouse.

What specific anatomical feature does a male Beta fish flare when it sees another male?

Its opercula (gill covers), while also raising its fins.

In the Stickleback mating chain, what is the female's physical response to a male's threat display?

She adopts a "head up" posture and shows her gravid (swollen, egg-filled) abdomen

What exact physical action defines the male stickleback's "tremble thrusts"?

Quick, repetitious thrusts of his snout against the base of the female's tail to stimulate egg release.

Which sex handles parental care in Three-Spine Sticklebacks?

The male (he defends the nest, gathers eggs from multiple females, and aerates them by fanning his pectoral fins).

What did Behaviorists assume about an animal's unmeasurable "mental capacity"?

That it could be directly inferred by the animal's objective ability to learn and solve problems.

Why did early Behaviorists believe they could use just one test species (like the lab rat) to understand all species?

They believed the basic principles of learning were identical across all species, differing only in complexity.

What specific brain region did Flourens discover was responsible for "higher-order behaviors"?

The cerebrum.

What was the prevailing scientific belief about memory that Karl Lashley was trying to test?

That learning a behavior causes an increase in the density of neural connections in a specific spot.

Define Nondescendent Kin as specified by W.D. Hamilton.

Relatives not directly produced by the individual, such as cousins, siblings, and nieces/nephews

How deep can modern cellular behaviorists track a Fixed Action Pattern?

Down to the exact neurons, neuronal circuits, and motor neurons in the brain responsible for initiating the behavior.

What happens to behaviors that reduce Darwinian fitness over time?

They are lost from the gene pool, while behaviors that increase fitness grow in frequency within the population.