Animal Behavior Exam 1

What is behavior?

Non-developmental observable responses of organisms to external or internal stimuli

Applies to all organisms, includes muscular and non-muscular responses

Why behave?

Some situations require an immediate response, waiting for transcriptions and translation or a developmental/growth response would take too long for large multicellular organism.

Responses can be rigidly specified or the programming can entail “flexible responses” to adapt to varying situations

When did humans first start studying behavioral biology

age of cave paintings

when does scientific study of animal behavior go back to?

aristotle

the Two sciences of Animal Behavior were inspired by ___ and are ___

writings of Charles Darwin; comparative psychology and etiology

comparative psychology

Darwin’s demonstration of an evolutionary continuity between humans and other animals suggests that the study of simple forms of behavior in animals will shed light on the more complex behavior and cognitive abilities of humans

founder of comparative psychology

George John Romanes; he was very anecdotal, uncritical, and anthropomorphic and added any stories he heard without any critical thinking

psychology who developed and what was it about

Wilhelm Wundt, took hard sciences as role models and made it scientific, experimental, quantitative and rigorous

Conway Lloyd Morgan

moved comparative psychology into mainstream psychology

Lloyd Morgan influence

• advocated for a more rigorous skeptical apprach to analyzing animal behavior

• methodological behaviorism (its impossible to study the minds of animals but we can scientifically study behavior)

• took no firm position on if animals have minds

Morgans Cannon

application of occams razor, dont interpret an animalbs behavior as a result of higher mental processing if it can be interpreted as something from lower mental processing ex. reflexes

Emphases of comparative psychology

focus on learned behavior and physiology of behavior, lab based, experimental/quantitative, use of model systems animals to develop understanding of basic processes that apply to both humans and other animals

The American School of Behvaiorist Comparative Psychology

started by edward l throndike who discovered operant conditioning, he introduced the puzzle box technique

John B. Watson

went beyond methodological behaviorism to philosophical behaviorism which states mental states done exist in animals and behavior is all there is

BF Skinner

dominant comparative psychologist in the 20th century, extended philosophical behaviorism even to people (people will behave how they will your not in control of your life)

Comparative Psychology: Primate Studies who conducted them

Robert Yerkes and Harry Harlow and used wisconsin general test apparatus

behavioral endocrinology (also part of comparative psychology) who and what is it

Frank Beach; study of the effect of hormones on behavior

Ethology

behavior is another aspect of phenotype that has evolved via natural selection and can be studied in its own right

forerunners of ethology

Charles Otis Whitman, Julian Huxley, Oskar Heinroth

Founder of Ethology

Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tingergen, Karl Von Frisch

emphases of ethology

focused on species specific instinctive behaviors, focused on observational studies of natural behavior, often in the field, focused on the evolutionary history and current adaptive function of behaviors

Karl Von Frisch

Founder of Ethology; meticulus experimenter, studied animal senses (fish can hear) and the honey bee waggle

Konrad Lorenz

Founder of ethology; studied imprinting; very observational and non quanitative

Niko Tinbergen

Founder of Ethology; comprehensive approach (covering all bases field and lab, instinctive and learned, vertabrates and invertabrates, strict methodological behaviorist, greatest continuing influence)

modern behavioral biology

builds on founders of ethology but adds in element of modern evolutionary biology including gene selectionism or selfish gene approach

who coined selfish gene approach/gene selectionism two ppl

George C. Williams created it and Richard Dawkins made it popular

selfish gene approach

behavior evolves not for the good of the species, group, or individual, but for the propagation of the genes responsible for the behavior; animals are survival machines build by genes to facilitate this propagation

Altruistic alarm call by ground squirrels example

behavioral altruism is explained by genetic selfishness; the squirrel sacrifices itself on behalf of the other carriers of the alleles