Exam 1

How did understanding animal behavior help humans survive?

made them more efficient hunters and better able to avoid being hunted

Who came up with Chain of Being?

Aristotle

Chain of Being

animal life is progressive, from simplest animals to increasingly more complex to humans

How was Chain of Being applied to animal behavior?

species closest to humanity had the most complex array of behaviors

• species further removed from humans = less complex behaviors

Who wrote Principles of Psychology & what was it about?

Herbert Spencer

• proposed model of animal behavior similar to Chain of Being

Origin of Species

Charles Darwin

• natural selection - explained differences in behaviors between species

The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex

Charles Darwin

• role that sexual selection plays in evolution

• sexual selection plays major role in animal behavior

• and can explain why disadvantageous features are retained (ex. peacock feathers)

Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals

Charles Darwin

• subjective and anthropomorphic field observations of behavior

• concluded that behavior increased in complexity as the brain increased in complexity

Darwin’s work was credited with having a founding role in which major subdisciplines of animal behavior?

• Ethology - study of animal behavior focused primarily on evolution and function of behavior

• Comparative Psychology - study of animal behavior focused on physiology, learning, and development of behavior

George Romanes

• supported Darwin’s evolutionary idea of behavior and continuity of behavior from one species to next

• table of emotions

• postulated similarity of cognitive functioning between animals and humans = founders of Comparative psychology

Jacques Loeb

1st to say animal research was instinctual

• nonhuman behaviors = tropisms

Tropism

physiochemical response to stimulus

• either move towards or away from stimulus

Which approach to animal behavior focused on evolution and function of behaviors and initially only used field studies?

Ethology

Which approach to animal behavior focused on the mechanism and development of behaviors and initially only used laboratory studies?

Comparative Psychology

Niko Tinbergen

Ethology + Comparative Psychology = 4 questions of Animal Behavior

4 questions of Animal Behavior

1. What are the mechanisms that cause a particular behavior

2. How did this particular behavior develop

3. What is the survival value of this behavior

4. How did this particular behavior evolve?

Which scientists founded Ethology?

• Niko Tinbergen

• Konrad Lorenz

• Karl von Frisch

Evolution works with genetically determined traits, so ethology focused on ________ behaviors.

inherited behaviors

Comparative Method

use phylogeny to see a range in the extent of a particular behavior by looking at related species

What are Empidid fly mating rituals an example of and how?

The Comparative Method

• developed nuptial gift to avoid female from feeding on male

• ranges from dead insect, to cocooned insect, to empty cocoon.

Fixed Action Patterns

a motor response initiated by an environmental stimulus that can be followed through to completion without the continuing influence of the external stimuli

What is the distinguishing factor of fixed action patterns (FAPs)?

the action continues to completion even if the stimulus that provoked it has been removed

Are FAPs learned or innate?

innate

How important is the sequence of acts of a FAP?

the sequence of component acts of a FAP must be consistent between individuals of a species and are unalterable.

What is face washing in a confused mouse an example of?

a fixed action pattern that was inappropriately triggered

Sign stimulus

the environmental factor that produced an FAP

What is the sign stimulus between Betaa fish?

the presence of the other male

Social Releaser

a sign stimulus caused by a conspecific (same species)

Behaviors that are long and involve being composed of a successive series of FAPs are called __________.

Chain of Reactions

How do stimulus work in Chain of Reaction FAPs or successive FAPS?

each successive FAP will have its own sign stimulus

sometimes previous FAP = sign stimulus for next FAP

How are Chain of Reactions related to mating behaviors?

the sign stimulus for chain of reactions can be a social releaser = complex mating behaviors

• male produces FAP in rxn to female = sign stimulus for FAP by female = sign stimulus for another male FAP, etc.

What is the mating ritual of the three spine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus?

a complex mating behavior resulting from the sign stimulus for a Chain of Reactions also acting as a social releaser

Morgan’s Canon

when there are two explanations possible, the simplest explanation should be chosen

C. Lloyd Morgon

• comparative psychologist

• more objective approach

• behavior should be explained in simplest way, consistent w available evidence (Morgon’s Canon)

• assume no human mental and emotional capacities are involved

What did Thorndike’s work lead to?

• Operant conditioning (trial and error learning)

• Law of Effect - responses that are rewarded tend to be repeated

Law of Effect

responses that are rewarded tend to be repeated

Operant conditioning

trial and error learning

• animal find solution accidently, then experiment repeated to see if subject can learn and find solution faster

What did Thorndike do to study Operant conditioning?

used puzzle boxes

• If the animal progressively sped up the response

  time then that indicated that the animal learned how to

  solve the puzzle.

Who developed Classical Conditioning?

Ivan Pavlov

Classical conditioning

rewarding stimulus is paired with an innocuous stimulus

association forms between the two

produces conditioned response

Behaviorism

a school of psychology that restricts the study of behavior to events that can be visually observed

What is the point of Behaviorism?

• eliminate subjectivity (focus on stimuli, response, and how that response is maintained)

• yield quantifiable data

B.F. Skinner was a comparative psychologist that followed _______

Behaviorism

What did B.F. Skinner show and how?

• Learning can be measured by looking at number of responses of a unit of time

• behavior can be controlled through reinforcement

• test animal learn to manipulate mechanism to release food item (reward)

• patterns of behavior that are rewarded tend to be repeated, or increase in occurrence

Physiological Psychology

branch of comparative psychology looking at physiological basis of behaviors

• nervous system + neurological mechanisms

First Physiological Psychologist

Jean Pierre Flourens

Who discovered that the mind was located in the brain and how?

Jean Pierre Flourens

• localized lesions of brain (ablations) in pigeons and rabbits + observing effects on their behavior

• = different regions of the brain performed different functions

Which part of brain is responsible for higher order behaviors?

Cerebrum

Who attempted to localize learning and memory in the cerebral cortex?

Karl Lashley

• ‘attempted’ because there is no one biological locus of memory

Who looked beyond the nervous system to include endocrine system’s role in behavior?

Frank Beach

• applied Lashley’s approach to behavior in rats, focusing on sexual and maternal behaviors

Father of Behavioral Endocrinology

Frank Beach

Behavioral Ecology

examines evolutionary and ecological basis of animal behaviors

• includes mating, communicating, foraging, and group living

Which approach to behavior examines the costs and benefits of behaviors in the context of the environment?

Behavioral Ecology

Sociobiology

application of evolutionary theory to social behavior

Which discipline of animal behavior explains how behaviors that may hurt the individual could arise because of how it benefits the population?

Sociobiology

Who proposed that evolutionary success should be measured not just by number of offspring that are produced by an individual and survive, but also by the effects of that individual’s actions on nondescendent kin?

W.D. Hamilton

What does Nondescendent kin include?

cousins, siblings, offspring of siblings

Inclusive FItness

the sum of an organism’s direct fitness (own offspring) and indirect fitness (not own offspring)

Who coined ‘inclusive fitness’?

W.D. Hamilton

Direct Fitness

how many of its own offspring it produces and supports

Indirect Fitness

number of individuals that are not its own offspring (or their descendants) that it can add to the population by supporting others

Inclusive fitness means that an organism can improve its overall genetic success through _______________.

Cooperative social behavior

Demography

statistical study of populations, esp w reference to size and density, distribution, and vital statistics

Who wrote the book “Sociobiology” and crystalized the concepts of the discipline?

E.O. Wilson

Behavioral Genomics

studies the influence of genes or a suite of genes on behavior

What is the modern classical version of Ethoology?

Behavioral Biology

Behavioral Biology

• integrates all four of Tinbergen’s questions to = complete and valid understanding of a behavior

• explain behavior in terms of impact on Darwinian fitness

How does Behavioral Biology explain behaviors in terms of their impact on Darwinian fitness?

• behaviors that reduce Darwinian fitness = lost from gene pool

• behaviors that increase Darwinian fitness = increase in frequency within populations

Applied Animal Behavior

practical utilization of knowledge gained through animal behavior to better understand the needs of animals