Animal Behavior Exam 2

Learning

A change in behavior as a result of experience.

Memory

The retention of learned experience.

Engram

Physical or chemical memory trace.

Forgetting

Helps to minimize the costs of learning and memory.

Imprinting

The learning of a critical feature in the environment at a young age and the retention of this knowledge for later use.

Konrad Lorenz

Studied imprinting in Graylag geese.

Habituation

Loss of a response to a stimulus when the stimulus is given repeatedly. Happens at the receptor/CNS level.

Conditioning

A form of learning in which association is made between two stimuli or between an action and a consequence. More pervasive in longer-lived organism.

Classical conditioning

Learning new associations between a stimulus and an innate or unlearned response, such as in Pavlov’s dogs.

Operant conditioning

Learning associations between learned behaviors and outcomes. Trial and error problem solving.

Reinforcement

A behavior becomes more likely due to the presentation or removal of a stimulus.

Punishment

A behavior becomes less likely due to the addition or removal of a stimulus.

Individual learning

Acquiring information through an individual’s own activities.

Social learning

Learning by observing others.

Local enhancement

When animals look to other foraging individuals as a cue to the location of food.

Public information

Info obtained from the activity or performance of others about the quality of an environment parameter or resource.

Teaching

The active participation of an experienced individual in facilitating learning by a naive conspecific.

Behavioral tradition

When behavioral differences among populations are transmitted from one generation to the next via social learning.

Culture

Differences in multiple traditions among populations.

Play

Improves motor skills, muscular development, brain development, and teaches foraging behavior. Mostly found in mammals.

Autoplay

When animals play alone.

Social play

Animals play in pairs or groups where interaction is a component.

Insight learning

Spontaneous problem solving without the benefit of trial and error learning.

Cognititive map

A mental representation of an animal’s landscape used for calculating optimal routes.

Empathy

The ability to project or feel the emotions of another animal.

Personality

Consistent differences in the behavior of an individual animal over the course of its lifetime.

Communication

A process in which a specialized signal produced by one individual affects the behavior of another.

Audience effect

Occurs when the presence of bystanders influences the behavior of a signaler.

Signals

A product that has evolved to carry a specific meaning to another animal.

Extended phenotype signals

Those that are expressed beyond the body of an individual and often include modification of the environment.

Cues

Passive indicators about the environment.

Pheromones

A chemical signal used in transmitting information within a species.

Pterins

Yellow, white, and red pigments.

Quinones

Red, yellow, and orange pigments. Similar to carotenoids.

Melanins

Brown and black pigments.

Fluorescence

Light is absorbed by a pigment, then retransmitted at a different wavelength.

Structural colors

Those that result from the structure of an animal’s surface rather than pigments.

Iridescence

Produced by thin layers of material that selectively reflect wavelengths of blue or green color range.

Multimodal signals

Composed using two or more signaling modalities, such as the bee dance.