Animal Behaviour Flashcards
(43 cards)
What is the function of behavioral adaptation?
Promotes survival and reproductive success.
Outline the definition of adaptive behaviour in a behavioral context.
Adjustments in behaviour which reflect changes in environment.
Outline and explain the components of natural selection.
Variation - genes have alternative forms, alleles, heredity - genes are transmitted from parent to offspring, differential reproduction - some genes give offspring a higher chance of survival and are therefore more likely to be passed on to future generations.
Outline Hamiltons rule of altruism.
Altruism is more present between relatives than within the species since relatives are more likely to share genes, therefore by promoting their survival these genes are more likely to survive to reproduction.
Outline Wynne-Edwards thinking on evolution and explain why this is wrong.
Wynne-Edwards attempted to pose that some individuals within a species attempt to reduce their chances of survival “for the good of the species” - genetic suicide. This is reproductive individuals show a selfish approach to NS - the reason some genes disappear is due to their lack of reproductive success.
What is meant by behaviour “out of context”?
Behaviour in a novel environment (in captivity).
Some animals show flexibility of their evolutionary behaviour, outline two ways in which this can be shown.
Developmental flexibility - response to early handing, eg calves. Learning - response to training, eg pigs and temperature.
Outline the six ideal characteristics for domestication and briefly explain them. FSMFPC
Flexibility - able to adapt to novel environments
Social behaviour - herds, males and females associate, hierarchy
Mating system - promiscuous
Feeding system - omnivorous/ generalist
Predation avoidance - low agility and short flight distance
Care of young - precocial young
Outline and explain the mechanisms by which domestication alters genetics.
Inbreeding and genetic drift due to small, restricted populations. Artificial selection by humans. Reproductive failure in captivity - kestrels? Relaxed natural selection due to low predation allows less naturally successful genes to survive.
What is Ethology?
The study of animals in natural environments. Although their behavioral experiments tended to be based upon behaviours under the influence of genes exclusively and therefore involved raising young in controlled environments.
Outline two ethology experiments on instinct and behaviour.
Hawk/ goose experiment - ducklings responding to a goose/ hawk silhouette (ducking and running from hawk but no response to goose)
Visual cliffs - ground nesting species launched themselves towards the cliff whereas tree species avoided it.
Outline an example of environmental influence on instinct and learning.
Pigs have an innate instinct to nest build at parturition, however with greater number of parities their skills become better through learns experience.
Which psychologists were responsible for outlining the principle of behaviorism?
Watson and Skinner
What is the belief of behaviourists regarding behaviours?
They believe that genes have no influence on behaviour.
Outline two approaches to behaviourism and give examples of experiments associated for each.
Association - the idea that behaviours are a result of conditioning behaviour (Pavlovs dogs)
Reinforcement - the idea that behaviours result from responses to positive and negative reinforment (dog training, response to handling)
Which experiment can be used as an counter argument to behaviourism?
Mices response to taste and a bell ringing could not be altered. Ie you cannot get a shocked response to an odd taste and nausea cannot result from presence of a loud sound. Genetics is too high an influence.
Outline the interactive theory of behavioural development.
It is a combination of ethology and behaviourism and focuses on the interaction between genes and environment in development of behaviour (accounts instinct and learned behaviour).
The interactive theory of development uses which experiments to back up its principles regarding genetic influences on behaviour?
Domestication of foxes - required intensive selective breeding since it seemed impossible in wild foxes due to their anxiety.
Dog breeds - despite being raised in identical environments different breeds continued to show different behaviours.
Outline three influences maternal environment has on behaviour of neonates.
Position in uterus - rats can be influenced by each other’s sexual hormones depending on the order of the sexes in the uterus - masculine females.
Maternal stress - hormones can cause heightened emotional responses and less explorative neonates.
Poor early nutrition - time of compensatory growth and impaired cognitive performance.
Outline two examples of behaviours developing from types of physical environment.
Kittens raised within only vertical lines are unable to perceive horizontal lines. Pigs raised indoors have heightened aggression due to restrictions on their instinctive behaviours.
Outline three experiments used to show the importance of social environment and how it can influence behaviour.
Lack of maternal figure - rhescus monkeys (preferred contact to lack of with food). Lack of socialization - dogs develop vastly different behaviours. Lack of play
“Play”
All motor activities performed post-natally which appear purposeless. The problem is that this definition can be used to describe stereotypies as well.. Poorly understood.
Which two sensitive periods of a neonates life can have drastic effects on development of behaviour?
Sexual imprinting - the relationship between male offspring and their mother can have irreversible effects on their sexual and social preferences in later life.
Socialization - eg in puppies at 3-7 weeks can have effects on the formation of future social interactions.
Identify some examples in which animals perceive environment differently to humans.
Birds - UV light, snakes - infra red (heat detection), dogs - greater olfactory capacity, bats - perceiving sonar, prey species - vision
