NBB 201: Ethology and the Evolution of Behavior

Why is he looking at his phone (blue box)

notification captures attention, reward/ anticipation, anxiety or arousal, boredom, habit cue triggers action

why is he looking at his phone (pink box)

learned routine, social/cultural norms, reinforced over time, repeated pattern becomes a habit

why is he looking at his phone (green box)

get information, maintain social connection (tinder), coordinate actions, look at his bank account

how to understand behavior

we have to understand the organism in relation to its environment

what is required when understanding behavior

we must analyze the simplest action to the most complex, requires multiple levels of explanation

Where does behavior emerge

it is from the interaction between the current environment and the individual's developmental history

what are social animal wired to do

attend to, perceive, use, and manipulate social information

what is the percentage of phones during face to face conversation

62%

what is the percentage of no phones used

38%

Mechanism (causation)

notification captures attention

reward/anticipation

anxiety or arousal

boredom

habit cue triggers actions

function (consequence)

get information

maintain social connection

coordinate actions

obtain resources ( cash app )

Ontogeny (development)

learned routine

social/ cultural norms

reinforced over time

repeated pattern becomes habit

Phylogeny (evolutionary history)

sensitivity to social information

monitoring relationships

belonging and status matter

attention to novelty and new information

How does this work now

mechanism and function

how does it arise over time

ontogeny and phylogeny

proximate explanations

mechanism and ontogeny

Ultimate explanations

function and phylogeny

mechanism questions

how does the trait work

what causes it to occur

function questions

why is this behavior adaptive

what is its function

ontogeny questions

how does behavior develop

what happened that led to this behavior

Phylogeny question

why did this behavior evolve in this species

What are Tinbergen's 4 questions?

mechanism, ontogeny, function, phylogeny

why do capuchins use stone tools ( mechanism)

hunger hormone is released

standing bipedally to crack the nut, (jump squat position)

why do capuchins use stone tools ( function)

allows the capuchins to crack the nut

can not open the nut solely with their hands so a stone tool must be used

why do capuchins use stone tools (ontogeny)

as they get older, they more stronger and bigger with enables them to pick bigger and heavier rocks, in order to crack more nuts

learned behavior

why do capuchins use stone tools (Phylogeny)

change of environment,

as they evolved teeth, they might not have the strength to crack the nut, so they must use a stone

their hand size could also change over time, as they evolved they might have smaller hands which prevents them from cracking the nut with their hands

monkeys who know how to use tools, have a greater fitness

mechanism: capuchins

seeing or handling a hard to open nut activates feeding motivation, and the capuchin uses sensory information about the nut and available stones to select a hammer and coordinate the pounding movement

ex: they sensory processes to pick a rock, they use factors such as weight, size, and durability

ontogeny: capuchins

young capuchins develop proficiency through maturation, practice, and experience watching other

function: capuchins

stone tool use allows access to high energy foods that increase nutritional benefits

ex nutrient dense nuts, provide more energy to perform other tasks such as cracking nuts with a stone

phylogeny: capuchins

capacity for stone-tool use may have deep evolutionary roots in capuchins, with particular traditions arising in different populations

when did sapajus and cebus diverge

6.5 million years ago

sapajus

robust capuchins

stone hammering was long documented in sapajus

bigger than cebus

perceived to be the only tool users

why sapajus use stone tools ; more frequently

enviromental difference between sapajus and cebus

what is behavior

way an organism acts in response to an internal and external stimuli

what do behavior traits reflect

the interaction between genes and environment

what factors contribute to depression

genetics and environmental

understanding behavior: baby herring gull

the baby gull causes its parent to regurgitate food onto the ground by pecking at the red spot on its parent's bill

this behavior is instinctive, the parent then picks up the food and feeds it to the baby

what questions are risen in the conversation of the definition of behavior

what counts as behavior

what counts as evidence

what kinds of explanations are scientifically acceptable

Equipontentiality

any two stimuli can be associated regardless of their nature

true of false: animal behavior is either respondent or operant

true

behaviorist beliefs

all animal behavior should be done in a laboratory

what are the two forms of conditioning

classical (pavlov) and operant (skinner)

example of classical conditioning

Ivan Pavlov- was able to condition dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell by pairing the bell repeatedly with the presentation of food

example of operant conditioning

Giving a dog a treat for bringing your newspaper

classical conditioning

associate an involuntary response and stimulus

oeprant conditioning

associate a voluntary behavior and consequence

T or F all species are inherently different

true

umwelt

perceptual world in which an organism exists and acts as a subject

t or f birds have a much more colorful vision than humans

true

ethology

study of animal behaviors

what did ethologists emphasized

species- typical behavior

naturalistic observation

animal's ecological context

innate and evolved components of behavior

comparisons across species

the function and evolutionary history of behavior

how can we understand animal behavior better

we need to study animals naturally do, in the contexts in which those behaviors evolved

niko tinbergen

Study of instinct

ethologists

karl von frisch

study of bees

showed that honey bees have color vision

tested this theory with a one blue square and many gray ones, the blue square had dish of sugar water and that is where all the bees went to

Konrad Lorenz

study of imprinting

proved instincts are present within animals

fixed action pattern (tinbergen)

instinctive behavior that are highly stereotyped

Behviorism

north american skinner , yerkes

psychology

white rat, primates

lab control of variables

learned behavior (foraging)

Ethology

european tinbergen, frisch, lorenz

biology

birds insects fish and later primates

careful field of observations and experiments

instinctive behavior (parenting, mating)

respondent behavior

involuntary response to stimuli

operant behavior

assoicate a voluntary response to a reward or consequence

charles henry turner

noted authority on the behavior of insects

first researcher to prove that insects can hear

first to prove that honey bees can see color and recognize color and patterns

experimental studies of bees, ants, wasp, and spiders

margaret morse nice

the real founder of ethology

zing-yang kuo

strongly criticized the concept of "instinct"; suggested learning as alternative

eugentics movement

test for the smartest in society, mostly the white rich males were give a chance to take this exam, some of the results were used to show that white males are the smartest demographic

what ideas did lorenz link

he linked biological ideas about instinct, domestication, and degeneration of claims about human society

What do behavioral traits reflect?

Interactions between genes and environments

What serves as a basic model for understanding behavior?

Tinbergen's four questions

What is ethology?

The study of animal behavior

Who had roots in the field of ethology?

Charles Darwin

When did ethology become a recognized field?

In the 1930s

What are some paradigm shifts in the study of behavior?

Behaviorism to ethology, stimulus to umwelt, captive studies to wild studies, and systematic data collection

What is a characteristic of the field of ethology today?

It is growing with the integration of new technology, statistical advances, and long-term data sets