Lecture 7: Development of Behavior Flashcards

What is neural control of behavioral change?

- Definition: Behavioral changes during development that correlate with structural changes, loss, or buildup of brain neurons.

- Example: Caterpillars lose motor neurons controlling chewing and crawling during metamorphosis as they transform into nectar-sucking butterflies.

What is morphological influence on behavior?

- Definition: Changes in physical structures or overall body size during growth that alter an animal's behavioral capabilities and ecological roles.

- Example: Juvenile Orinoco crocodiles are preyed upon by caimans, but as adult Orinocos grow larger, their behavior shifts to preying on adult caimans.

What is temperature-dependent sex determination?

- Definition: A prenatal environmental influence where incubation temperature affects hormone release and brain neural circuitry to determine offspring gender.

- Example: Nest incubation temperatures in sea turtles determine the gender of hatching offspring.

What is postnatal environmental enrichment?

- Definition: Providing captive animals with environmental stimuli to foster natural behaviors, improve problem-solving, and prevent abnormal behaviors.

- Example: Zoos placing wine- or lemur-soaked towels in tiger enclosures to encourage investigation and activity.

What is the environmental effect on territoriality?

- Definition: Variations in physical environment conditions that dictate how aggressively species members defend physical boundaries.

- Example: Animals living in harsher, resource-scarce environments display a higher degree of territoriality than those in less extreme areas.

What is environmental influence on foraging strategies?

- Definition: Shifts in an animal's feeding habits driven by seasonal climate changes or human activity in their habitat.

- Example: Bears change their feeding strategies seasonally and alter foraging habits in response to human presence and food sources.

What is play behavior?

- Definition: A range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities typically associated with recreational pleasure and motor practice.

- Example: Play observed in mammals, birds, octopi, and some reptiles.

What is attunement play?

- Definition: Early interactive play that establishes an emotional and physical connection between a newborn and its caregiver.

- Example: Infant-mother gazes and subtle bonding interactions in young mammals.

What is body play?

- Definition: Play behavior where a young animal explores how its own body moves and interacts with its surrounding space.

- Example: A puppy chasing its own tail or performing acrobatic jumps.

What is object play?

- Definition: Play that involves manipulating physical items in the environment driven by curiosity.

- Example: A crow playing with pinecones or a wolf puppy chewing and tossing a bone.

What is social play?

- Definition: Play involving interactions with conspecifics such as wrestling, chasing, or tumbling to build social connections.

- Example: Young wolves tumbling and wrestling with littermates.

What are the cognitive benefits of play?

- Definition: Enhancement of intellectual abilities, perceptual skills, and problem-solving through play experience.

- Example: Young predatory animals practicing mock hunting and fighting movements through play.

What are the physical benefits of play?

- Definition: Improvements in muscular strength, endurance, motor coordination, and reaction time gained during play.

- Example: Young ungulates running and leaping to develop muscular coordination and aerobic capacity.

What are the social benefits of play?

- Definition: Practice in reading/sending communication signals, establishing social hierarchies, and maintaining group bonds.

- Example: Primates engaging in mutual grooming and mock social encounters to solidify group structure.

What is a sensitive period?

- Definition: An extended developmental timeframe during which an individual's nervous system is especially receptive to specific environmental stimuli.

- Example: The window in early bird development when song learning occurs most efficiently.

What is a critical period?

- Definition: Konrad Lorenz's concept of a brief, strictly defined phase during which exposure to specific stimuli produces irreversible behavioral transformation.

- Example: The brief post-hatch window when greylag goslings form an irreversible bond with a moving object.

What is the duration precept of sensitive periods?

- Definition: The rule stating that sensitive periods are extended time windows rather than short-lived, rigid windows.

- Example: Language acquisition in humans extending over several early developmental years rather than hours.

What is the boundary precept of sensitive periods?

- Definition: The rule that sensitive periods feature gradual onset and decline rather than abrupt starting and ending points.

- Example: A gradual decrease in an animal's ability to learn filial preference over days rather than an instant cutoff.

What is the variation precept of sensitive periods?

- Definition: The rule that sensitive period lengths differ across species, individuals within a species, and distinct functional systems.

- Example: Visual system sensitive periods lasting a different length of time than auditory sensitive periods in the same animal.

What is the environmental stimulus dependency precept?

- Definition: The rule that the timing and outcome of a sensitive period depend on the nature and intensity of environmental stimuli encountered.

- Example: High-intensity auditory exposure during early life extending or sharpening sound preference development.

What is the key evidence for confirming a sensitive period?

- Definition: Proof that exposure after the window yields significantly worse performance, while performance no longer correlates with age past the period.

- Example: Animals exposed to social cues only after the sensitive period fail to develop normal social behaviors.

What is the reversibility of sensitive period behaviors?

- Definition: The concept that behaviors formed during sensitive periods can be altered or suppressed under specific conditions like deprivation, though they remain resilient.

- Example: Deprivation conditions altering or suppressing socially learned behaviors established early in life.

Why do sensitive periods usually occur early in life?

- Definition: Early timing coincides with parental care availability and high neural plasticity during brain development.

- Example: Young chicks learning survival skills from their mother while their central nervous system is highly plastic.

How are sensitive periods initiated?

- Definition: The onset is triggered by an interaction between internal physiological changes and external environmental cues.

- Example: Neural maturation combining with seasonal temperature shifts to trigger imprinting readiness.

What is olfactory stream imprinting in Pacific salmon?

- Definition: A sensitive period during smoltification where salmon learn the unique chemical signature of their home stream to navigate back as adults.

- Example: Young Pacific salmon imprinting on stream odors right after their olfactory neural networks finish establishing.

What is the self-terminating learning hypothesis?

- Definition: The idea that learning itself alters the nervous system by decreasing neural plasticity, thereby ending the sensitive period.

- Example: Synaptic stabilization following early auditory input stopping further rapid song reconfiguration in songbirds.

What is the maturation hypothesis for sensitive period decline?

- Definition: The idea that normal body growth and developmental changes naturally make the animal less receptive to external triggering stimuli.

- Example: Hormonal shifts over time reducing an animal's sensitivity to early imprinting cues.

What are multiple sensitive periods?

- Definition: Successive sensitive periods that occur sequentially for complex behaviors composed of several distinct developmental steps.

- Example: Bird song learning requiring an early sensory listening period followed by a later sensorimotor practice period.

What is imprinting?

- Definition: Any phase-sensitive, rapid learning process occurring at a particular life stage independent of behavioral reinforcement outcomes.

- Example: Newly hatched greylag goslings following Konrad Lorenz after seeing him move.

What is the initial predisposition step in filial imprinting?

- Definition: An innate tendency for hatchlings to approach moving objects that resemble conspecifics before specific learning occurs.

- Example: Goslings instinctively walking toward large, moving objects in their immediate environment.

What is filial imprinting?

- Definition: The process by which a young animal learns parent-specific cues and forms a preferential social bond to follow its mother.

- Example: Young goslings learning their mother's specific vocal calls through repeated exposure shortly after hatching.

What is sexual imprinting?

- Definition: The process by which a young animal learns the physical characteristics of potential future mates from its family members.

- Example: Young birds observing their parents and siblings to establish a mental template for adult mate choice.

What is the evolutionary function of sexual imprinting?

- Definition: Guiding adult mate selection toward individuals that are similar to family members but not identical, balancing gene compatibility.

- Example: An adult bird selecting a mate of its own species while avoiding direct littermates to reduce inbreeding risk.

What is maternal attachment?

- Definition: A rapid, imprinting-like bonding process after birth that directs a mother's parental care exclusively toward her offspring.

- Example: An antelope mother forming a selective bond with her newborn calf shortly after birth.

Why is maternal attachment adaptive in ungulates?

- Definition: It prevents mothers from wasting resources on unrelated offspring in dense herds where precocial young walk immediately and mix together.

- Example: A sheep identifying and nursing only her own lamb in a synchronized birthing herd.

What is maternal responsiveness?

- Definition: The initial step of maternal attachment where a mother displays general nurturing behaviors in the presence of any newborn.

- Example: An ungulate mother showing general maternal care within 0 to 12 hours after giving birth.

What is maternal selectivity?

- Definition: The second step of maternal attachment where a mother restricts nurturing behavior strictly to her own individual offspring.

- Example: An ungulate mother accepting her own calf but aggressively repelling foreign calves within 1 to 2 hours post-birth.

What is the role of olfactory cues in ungulate maternal selectivity?

- Definition: Scent signals provided by amniotic fluid and offspring skin that allow mothers to learn their calf's unique identity.

- Example: A mother goat licking her newborn immediately after birth to memorize its distinct scent profile.

What sensory cues mediate maternal selectivity in marine mammals and birds?

- Definition: Auditory identification cues that allow mothers to recognize the unique vocalizations of their young in crowded colonies.

- Example: Female seals and penguins identifying their specific offspring's call among thousands in a dense rookery.

What is brood care?

- Definition: Parental care directed toward large groups of offspring (broods) common in non-avian, non-mammalian species.

- Example: Parental guarding and nurturing seen in ant colonies and cichlid fish.

What is substrate brooding in cichlids?

- Definition: A form of brood care where parents lay eggs on exposed surfaces like rocks or logs and divide territorial defense and egg care.

- Example: Male cichlids defending the outer territory boundary while females fan fresh water over eggs on a flat rock.

What is visual imprinting in substrate brooding cichlids?

- Definition: A rapid post-hatch learning phase where cichlid parents memorize the visual appearance of their newly hatched fry.

- Example: Parent cichlids accepting and protecting swimming fry that match the visual template formed right after hatching.

What is territorial rejection of fry in cichlids?

- Definition: Father cichlids rejecting returning fry if they leave the territory without the mother and travel too far away.

- Example: A male cichlid attacking his own offspring if they stray past territory limits and attempt to return independently.

What is secretive cave brooding in cichlids?

- Definition: A category of cichlid brood care where eggs and early larvae are hidden inside secluded rock crevices or caves for safety.

- Example: Cichlids laying and guarding eggs inside small submerged caves to prevent egg predation.

What is mouth brooding in cichlids?

- Definition: A parental care strategy where a parent carries eggs or larvae inside their mouth to shelter them from predators.

- Example: Ovophile or larvophile cichlid parents holding fry in their buccal cavity during danger despite suppressing their own feeding.