How Behavior is Measured and Studied

What is anthropomorphism?

When animals behavior is viewed through the lens of human behavior

What is needed when studying animal behavior to avoid bias?

Planning and consideration

What is the scientific name for chimpanzees?

Pan troglodytes

Animal behavior researchers interpret behavior from the…

Point of view of the animal

Anthropomorphism may be needed for ______ interpretations on an animal’s inner state

broader

Animal behavior researchers try to strike a balance between…

Humanizing animals and treating them as robotic machines

What was the earliest form of animal behavior research?

Observation

Observational studies today are __________-driven

Hypothesis

What do researchers participating in observational studies use to make hypothesis?

Tinbergen’s four questions

Observational studies make associations regarding….

When behaviors occur and under what conditions

What type of study do animal behavior researchers often use first?

Observational studies

What needs to occur for direct cause and effect to be understood?

Manipulation

What are the two main types of manipulation?

Natural and artificial

Why can using natural manipulation be tricky?

Prior observations must have been made and the events are unpredictable

To make concrete conclusions about why an animal behaves in a certain way, ___________ behaviors must be measured

Consistent and replicable

What is the easiest way to understand direct cause and effect of stimuli on behavior?

Laboratory studies

What is a control group?

A group in a laboratory study that is not manipulated in any way

What is the trade-off with the high control of laboratory studies?

They are highly artificial

What do ethograms use to quantify the frequency or types of behavior?

A detailed description of behavior

What are ethograms used for?

Laboratory studies, observational studies, and to study the health and welfare of captive animals

Ethograms must be written in a way where…

One type of behavior cannot be confused with any other kind

When is it especially difficult to keep track of all types of behaviors occuring?

When the animals are fast moving or are in a group

How can ethograms help a researcher keep track of how often to record behavior?

By using a set point in time when observations are recorded

What is it called when the results of two or more researchers are compared for reliability?

Inter-rater reliability

What is a downside of using videos to research behavior?

It can only be seen at one angle at a time and in one location

What are the main benefits of machine learning for animal behavior research?

It quickly detects and accurately measures behavior and relatively free of bias

How do machine learning algorithms score behavior?

Strict visual criteria

Currently, machine learning as an _______ tool

Emerging

What does behavioral genetics do?

Explores how genes and the environment interact to influence behavior

True or false: Genes guarantee a behavior will be performed

False

Studying genetic changes in behavior can help explain….

Why some individuals are more susceptible to environmental factors than others

Comparative biology offers scientists a way to understand….

How and why traits have evolved

What does dopamine control?

Movement and feeding behaviors

Dopamine exists in what kind of animal?

Almost all of them

The fact that dopamine is common to starkly different animals indicates that…

It evolved a long time ago and is essential to life

For animals no longer alive, what is one of the only ways scientists can understand their behavior?

Comparisons of structure

How may a scientists determine how dinosaurs behaved or looked?

Looking at the modern relatives of dinosaurs, such as crocodiles and birds