influential animal ethologists

ethology

the study of animal behavior

neural circuit

the pathway (steps) in your brain to respond to something (from stimulus response to response and what happens)

animal behaviorists

study behave and try to determine what causes certain types of behaviors and what factors can prompt or change

baseline

what is considered 'normal' behavior for an individual (or species)

anthropomorphism

assigning human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human beings,

pioneers in the study of animal behavior

Karl von Frisch, Niko Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz

psychosomatic

social, psychological, and behavioral factors and how they affect bodily processes and quality of life

Tinbergs 4 questions

survival value, evolution, development, causation

Ivan Pavlov

discovered classical conditioning; trained dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell

classical conditioning

involves learning to associate an unconditioned stimulus that already brings about a particular response with a new conditioned stimulus, so that the new stimulus brings about the same response

unconditioned response

the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

unconditioned vs conditioned

unconditioned: side effect

conditioned: on purpose

John B Watson

behaviorism & conditioning, little albert experiment

behaviorism

behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning without appeal to thoughts or feelings and psychological disorders are treated by altering behavior patterns

conditioning

learning through association

Little Albert

conditioned to be afraid of fluffy white things (white rat), his fear was generalized to other similar stimuli

B.F. Skinner

behaviorist that believed we could control and predict behavior, developed operant conditioning

operant conditioning

learning/training that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior, individual makes association between a particular behavior & consequence

skinner box

rat would move around the box, accidentally presses the lever, gets food, associates pressing the lever with food

Edward Tolman

researched rats' use of "cognitive maps", latent learning

purposive behaviorism

learning is purposeful/intentional/goal oriented

latent learning

'subconscious' learning that stays with the individual until they need it, basically animals unconsciously observe their surroundings with no real goal

Tolman's experiment

rats practice maze, familiar path gets cut off, rats use their cognitive (mental) map to find another way out

Harry Harlow

studied attatchment theory, importance of bonding between mother-young

critical period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development (in this case, clinging)

Dmitry Belyaev

domestic fox experiment, studied how domestication worked and why so few animals are domesticated

domestic fox experiment

responsible for our understanding of how dogs we know today were domesticated from wolves

neotany

keeping the same qualities from youth

Karl Lashley

studied learning and memories, wanted to find out where rats memories were stored

equipotentiality

the idea that memories are not localized and are spread through the brain, distributed

engrams

memories

Doland Griffin

studied cognitive ethology, how animals think, concluded that animals were conscious, thinking beings

automations

act in only one way with certain stimulus

William Morton Wheeler

expert of ecology, behavior, and classification of ants and social insects

myrmecologists

people who study ants

Edward O. Wislon

father, lord, king of ants, determined that genes play a role in determining human behavior, also called the grandfather of evolutionary psychology

sociobiology

study of natures role in determining behavior and evolution

grandfather of evolutionary psychology

explores the links between genetic and cultural evolution, no accidents in evolution

pheromones

chemical signals that play a major role in communication and behavior

Robert Yerkes

studied comparative animal psychology, especially in animal intelligence, developed inteligence testing to measure mental ability/opportunity, prior education, training, and culture play a role

observational learning

watching and learning from something, then are better able to solve problems because they had the opportunity to to learn something similar

yerkes-dodsom law (AKA arousal theory)

for every task there is an optimal level of motivation/stress

Irene Pepperberg

studied animal cognition with Alex the african grey parrot, found that some birds have cognitive abilities on par with primates

Bunny the Dog

sheepadoodle dog, she used buttons to speak 92 words, can form 4 word phrases (understands syntax & questions)

Dr. Temple Grandin

expert on the humane treatment of livestock, designed many humane slaughterhouse designs

Jane Goodall

worlds foremost expert on chimps, found out they make tools and have similar social behavior to humans and are omnivores, engage in war but also show acts of compassion

Monty Roberts

horse whisperer, hated saddle breaking, gave the horse the descion to work with the handler

join up

giving the horse the choice to work with the handler, uses body language to communicate with the animal that you are not a threat and focuses on asking them to participate

Gestalt Psychology

based on our individual perception, how we personally understand what we are seeing

Wolfgang Köhler

contributed to gestalt psychology, added the gestalt principles/laws of human perception that describe how we group similar elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images

Law of Similarity/Proximity

we group things that have similar properties, such as color, shape, size

Law of Common Fate

things that are moving together are tend to be perceived as a unified group

Law of Figure/Ground

states that we can distinguish and object from the background

Laws of Continuation/Continuity

states that points are connected by a straight or curving lines that are seen are following the smoothest path

Law of Closure

if something is missing in an otherwise complete figure, we tend to mentally add to it

Law of Simplicity

objects in the environment that are seen as a way that makes them appear as simple as possible (simple logos=easy to remember)