Definition of Terms

Innate Behaviour

animals are born knowing certain behaviour

eg. imprinting, defense, origins of complex behaviour

Learned Behaviour

behaviour that is gained throughout life and experience

flexible behaviour that enables survival, associates cause and effect, and protects from exploitation

Tabula Rasa

People are born empty and shaped by their experiences

Learning

taking a flexible inducible behaviour and converting it to permanence

occurs rapidly

Habituation

getting so used to a stimuli you stop responding

permanent change

Dishabitiuation

leaving an environment, then returning and having that innate behaviour

Rehabituation

relearning the habituated behaviour faster than the initial habituation

Associative Learning

correlating a stimulus with an outcome

eg. classical conditioning

Unconditioned Response

what is already known by the subject of the experiment

Conditioned Stimulus

what the subject of the experiment must learn

Conditioned Response

behaviour learned during the experiment

Reinforcer

positive or negative reward provided to enhance or encourage the conditioned response

Instrumental Learning

associating an action with an outcome

reward is paired with a conditional response

eg. skinner’s box and thorndike’s box - animals learn through trial and error

permanent residual memory

Cognitive Reasoning / Insight Learning

thinking out the problem rather than using trial and error

Theory of Mind

Branches off of cognitive reasoning

looks at how an animal perceives the problem rather than only the behavioural outcome of it

Double Blind Tests

Clever Hans and Van Oosten

both researcher and subject do not know who is receiving the treatment or placebo

Spatial Skills

used for returning home after displacement, target finding, dispersal, and migration

Target Finding

finding something left behind

True Navigation

knowledge of how things relate to each other and which direction you are moving

Simple Invariant Rules

stay in environment you have made nice - make more turns when in nice environment to stay there longer

co-operative navigation

helpful in difficult terrain, animals taking different routes and signaling to each other which way is easier

Dead Reckoning

direction of navigation determined by route integration - using cues from sensory sources without using visual references (eg landmarks) to estimate distances and position

Piloting via Landmarks

identifying landmarks before leaving a location in order to return to it laters

eg. beewolves

Cognitive maps

adjustable mental map of landmarks

eg. beewolf orientation flight

wind and current patterns for sea animals and insecrs

Sound Maps

using infrasounds—long traveling low frequency sounds— to identify directions

sonar - sounds bouncing back from landscape

Olfactory Maps

use of local smells to identify locations and map for navigation

Plastic Response

being able to adapt one piece of knowledge to a new environment

eg. a frog is moved from on pond to another, over time it will learn the new direction of the shore

Occam’s Razor

when presented with two explanations you should prefer the simpler one

Magnetic Sense

gives information on direction and latitude (not longitude)

animals build a mental map of local magnetic fields

used by ants and pigeons

“True” Navigation

knowing where you are without knowing how you got there

could be using landmarks and knowing where they are relative to each other

monarch butterflies, manx shearwater

Benefits of social behaviour

predator defense

group hunting

social learning

resource sharing

Costs of social behavior

easy target for predation

spread of diseases

competition for food

competition for mates

Trophallaxis

two individuals sharing food

ie. ants and vampire bats sharing food via regurgitation

Animal traits that cause them to be more social

Larger in size

longer life span

higher intelligence

closer relations

monogamous

Cooperation

working together to benefit society

involves individual sacrifice for public good

leads to conflict

Opportunity costs

missing out on things / not doing as well compared to if you had gone about it in a ‘less moral way’

ie. doing better if you had cheated

Tragedy of the Commons

individuals with access to a public resource act in their own interest causing the resource to be depleted

Tragedy of the Commons 2

Bacterial Boogaloo

bacteria need iron to grow → some individuals produce siderophores that help sequester it → the siderophores benefit every bacterium present → some bacteria don’t produce siderophores but get to used others → causes decrease in production of siderophores because cheaters proliferate more → cheating leads to breakdown of cooperation → new processes have to be used to maintain cooperation

Altruism

Bottom-up

method of maintaining cooperation

Punishment

top-down

method of maintaining cooperation

The Superorganism

the ultimate outcome of sociality

scenario in which all elements of a society work together to produce a greater emergent whole

all advanced social structures must suppress cheats

Optimality Modeling

Benefits and costs plotted against a measure of behavior

Tradeoffs *Dar

keep us operating within reality

Darwinian Daemons*

Landscape of Fear

an ecosystem where the presence of predators affects the behavior of the prey

Predation RIsk

likelihood of a prey being killed by a predator

Landscape of Disgust

parasite avoidance behavior affects ecology and evolution in ways that are similar to predator avoidance

The Ideal Free Distribution Part 1

Animals Seek out resources

• more resources attract more animals

drives increasing density in these areas

The Ideal Free Distribution Part 2

Greater density drives greater competition.

Greater competition reduces the attractiveness of the patch.

This stops individuals from choosing to inhabit those areas

HOPEFULLY, causes populations to be ‘perfectly’ distributed across patches according to their value

The Ideal Free Distribution Part 3

Determination of which patch to chose based on the given attributed

No matter where you end up you will get the same ratio of resources per individual

The Ideal Free Distribution Assumptions

Each available patch has an inherent quality.

Individuals are free to move.

Individuals are aware of patch quality, and choose the ideal one.

Density → Competition.

All individuals are competitively equal.

none are completely valid in reality

The Ideal Free Distribution Complications

There are many types of edible resources.

• These resources all fluctuate in availability.

There are many non-edible resources.e.g. Climate.

Patches vary in predator density.

• (And predators themselves are undergoing this same process!)

Patches vary in parasite density.

• (Which itself is driven by host density on the patches).

Animals are often under time pressure to make a decision.

AND they are operating under limited information.

Optimality Models

attempt to predict the combination of costs and benefits that will maximize the individuals inclusive fitness

Helps us to understand:

1. Animals decision making

2. Currency in use

3. Constraints that limit behavior

apply to many behaviors but mostly to optimal foraging

Travelling Time

time to get to and from the site or between feeding patches

Search Time

time to spot preferred food

Pursuit Time

time to stop it running away and subdue it

Handling Time

time taken to break it open/chop it up and eat it

Law of Diminishing Returns

if you keep increasing one factor in the production of goods while keeping all other factors the same, there will be a point where additional increases will cause a decline in output

Hawk-Dove Model

Hawk vs. Hawk = wins 50% of fights, is injured in 50% of fights

Hawk vs Dove = Hawk always wins and dove flees

Dove vs Hawk = dove never wins and is never injured

Dove vs Dove = dove wins 50% of fights, is never injured, and wastes time

ESS

situation where either strategy will do better if there are more of them

Spatiotemporal Structure

influence kin structure and drive cooperation probability

Rehersal

how often a memory is used

Retention Level

how long since you last used that memory

Explicit Memory

things you know, facts, memories

required conscious awareness

semantic and episodic memory

Implicit Memory

unconscious knowledge, the effects of experience

does NOT require conscious awareness

Semantic Memory

memory of facts

Episdoic Memory

memory of first hand events/experiences

Procedural Memory

type of implicit memory

how to do things ~ especially trial and error learning

complex movements that you no longer think about

cognitive and motor skills

Classical Conditioning Memory

type of implicit memory

Associations learned aren’t consciously recalled most of the time

Priming

type of implicit memory

changes in behavior as a result of experiences that have happened recently or frequently. Two effects – activation of knowledge  and influence on behavior

enhanced identification of objects of words

First Stage of Memory

Sensory Memory

Sensory Memory

immediate processing of incoming information

short term buffer for sensory information to process

Iconic memory

visual sensory memory

typically ¼ second

Eidetic Imagery

“photographic memory”

iconic memory lasts longer than ¼ second

Echoic Memory

4 seconds (ish)

memory of sounds ~ typically start of long sentence to end

Short term memory (STM)

working memory from minute to minute, immediate recall

Working Memory

not memory storage

process of making sense or, modifying, interpreting, and storing information in the STM

Maintenance Rehersal

process of repeating information mentally or out loud with the goal of retaining it

Chunking

remembering information in groups rather than individually

Second stage of memory

Short term memory

Long term memory (LTM)

lengthy storage

only useful for certain things

no known limit in size

Third Stage of Memory

Long term memory

Synaptic Consolidation

process of forming a memory trace in the LTM

Three Processes of Memory

T1

RI

T2

T1

conditions where learning happens

Retention Interval

the longer of the RI and the more things that happen during the RI decreased the accuracy of the recall

Proactive Interference

The first things learned make later ones hard to remember. (Called Primacy effects)

long RI

Retroactive Interference

Later learning clouds your memory of earlier lessons.  (Called Recency effects)

short RI

Consolidation

occurs during gaps, if there’s no interference

Classic Learning Theory

First Association with a novel object is the strongest

State Dependent Memory

Internal state - same mood as when the memories are incoded

Context Dependent Memories

Same specific place as when the memories were encoded

overfitting

creating a model that matches (memorizes) the training set so closely that the model fails to make correct predictions on new data

The Loci Method

Making a memory of a place, defining a path, encoding the list, recalling the list

Encoding arbitrary information as spatial information that you’re familiar with can help you remember it

Characteristics of Play

1)Normal behavioural elements not performed in normal order

2)Movements very exaggerated

3)Elements often repeated

4)Sequence broken with irrelevant actions

5)Failure to complete elements, which may be repeated.

6)Usually carried out far more by immature animals

Self-handicapping

one animal puts themself at a disadvantage during play

facilitates play, allows it to last longer by giving a reward (winning) to the weaker player, helps prepare stronger animals for real fights which they could lose

Locomotor Play

help development of muscles and brain

practice of tricky movement sequences

enhance learning about the environment

improve fitness and stamina

Social Play

helps set up hierarchies

helps form coalitions

development of social competence

Play in Girls

Play in small groups, take turns, not competitive, little arguing but it stops the game and is not usually resolved

Play in Boys

Play in big groups, long formal competitive games, frequent arguing but usually quickly return to the game