Behavior Flashcards

Question

Define motivation

Answer 1

This is a complex innate behaviour; which drives an organism to respond to stimuli; self drives; intrinsic forces.

Answer 2

This is a complex innate behaviour; that involves movement of a population/part of population; from one area to another and their return to original area/habitat after some time eg • Stickle back fish in the springs, the males migrate upstream to their breeding grounds.

Answer 3

• To look for mates. • To look for food. • To look for water etc

Answer 4

• it’s a means of finding better food suppliers • provides better chances of finding good breeding places/sites thus animals that have migrated breed successfully • enables animals to avoid adverse unfavourable environmental conditions.

Answer 5

→ Follow prominent natural/Physical features e.g. Mountain ranges, waterbodies & waterfalls etc. → Orientation towards the direction of sun’s rays i.e. orient themselves in relation to the position of the sun → Doves using their tails as a compass to find their way back home. → Have inborn ability to sense direction like the homing ability of pigeons; internal biological clock.

Answer 6

This is an innate behaviour where organism or group of organisms acquire; demarcate; protect/guard an area out of intruders. Note: Amphibians don’t display territoriality.

Answer 7

A territory is an area(avenue) of the habitat which is occupied by an individual/group of individuals and defended from other individuals of the same species.

Answer 8

(i) Defecating around the territory (ii) Urinating around it (iii) Making special sounds (iv) Making special signals like posture/facial expression. (v) Producing bad odour/smell. (vi) Rubbing glandular parts of the body against objects called scent posts.

Answer 9

To prevent actual fighting from breaking out since the rival usually accepts defeat and departs as it is frightened by the threatening postures of the aggressor. E.g. ✓ An aggressive dog threatens another rival by standing erect barring its teeth and the rival is threatened and departs. ✓ Open combat between human beings is avoided by facial expression.

Answer 10

• Reduces loss of animals(organisms) to predation by defending the territory against predators • Ensures/guarantees food supply, shelter and adequate space to offsprings, old and the mates; by keeping off all other animals that would feed on their food and reducing intraspecific competition; • Reduces the amount of time devoted to aggression which is a destructive behavoiur; and aggression is replaced by mere threats; • Reduces/prevents spreading of diseases/epidemics; due to reduced contact with other organisms • Limits mating to biologically fit individuals only thus, increase the overall fitness of the population; by ensuring passing on of good genetic characters/traits from one generation to the next • Enhances pair formation hence mating assured; which is a pre-requisite for reproduction of most animals; • Permits improved defense of nest and young ones; due to protection of breeding area & offsprings; • Reduces interference from other intending mates;(other organisms intending to mate)

Answer 11

• Leads to genetic death since mating is only limited to fit individuals; and unfit/weak individuals are denied chance for mating thus don’t propagate their genetics to their young ones/subsequent generation; • Limits the population density that can be attained in an area; • Reduces genetic variation; since it encourages inbreeding which results into reduced biological fitness; • Puts animals at risk of predation in which case the entire territory likely to be consumed • Encourages spreading of diseases amongst territory owners during the outbreak of epidemics; due to overcrowding; • Encourages passing on of poor traits from fit individuals to offsprings; since mating is limited to fit individuals only; • Weak organisms are incapable of making territories; since they can’t secure and defend them;

Answer 12

This is a complex form of inborn behaviour involving both precopulatory/prenatal behaviour like courtship and post copulatory/postnatal behaviour like care for the young called parental care.

Answer 13

- Pre-copulatory behavior - Post-copulatory behavior

Answer 14

This is a form of stereotyped(specific) behaviour between male and female organisms prior to mating which eventually lead them to mate. • It ends in pair formation i.e. male-female pairs; occurs with focus of mating. Eg - Unmated female cockroach secretes a chemical substance which stimulates the male to court it. - Making sounds in amphibians - Change in colour of belly to red in male stickleback fish.

Answer 15

• Synchronizes development of gonads. • Induces mating among accepted pair/leads to mating after pair formation • Strengthen bond pair among mating pair. • Reduces aggressiveness among mating pair. • Synchronizes maturity towards to sexual activity[preparedness] • Ensures pair formation and pair bond formation thus ensuring the responsibility of both male and female partners of the same species for the young. • Suppresses some tendencies that exist in organisms like escaping behaviour, avoidance of body contact. • Prevents mate cannibalism i.e. the tendency to eat members of the same species.

Answer 16

This is a series of activities a parent animal does to ensure the survival, development and well being of its young. Note: man at any particular time has smaller number of young compared to those of amphibians but offers maximum parental care.

Answer 17

- It ensures survival of species from one generation to another.

Answer 18

This is a chemical substance produced by one animal which influences the behaviour of another. • It does so either by acting as a releaser of by building up motivation towards a particular type of behaviour. e.g. unmated female cockroaches secrete a chemical substance which stimulates the male to court them.

Answer 19

This is a social behaviour where an individual puts itself at a risk/personal disadvantage in trying to ensure survival of organisms of the same species. OR This is an activity where an organism puts itself at an increased risk/disadvantage for the sake of other organisms E.g. Mating & parental care. Birds feeding their young ones until they reach an age of feeding themselves;

Answer 20

• Ensures defense for members of a group • Ensures protection and care for the young ones • Leads to increased allele frequency • Leads to increased population size • Ensures continuous food supply for the young ones and also other members of the group. • Ensures continuity of the species of organisms thus survival.

Answer 21

These are biological activities occurring at regular intervals.

Answer 22

Rhythms involving an internal clock or pacemaker

Answer 23

Rhythms controlled by external factors. External factors; → Photoperiods. → Tidal variations. → Seasonal changes.

Answer 24

This is a group of behavioural activities including threat postures, rituals & occasionally physical attacks [protection] onto other organisms, often to members of same sex and species; other than those associated with predation

Answer 25

➢ Enhances food capturing. ➢ Leads to Creation of hierarchy. ➢ Ensures defense for the young ones and mates. ➢ Leads to increased genetic fitness over generations ➢ Leads to displacement of weaker ones ➢ Ensures mating for only fit individuals ➢ Leads to increased allele frequency for valued traits. ➢ Enhances establishment of territories. ➢ Minimizes risks of physical combat within the population. ➢ Leads to display of weaker ones.

Answer 26

Is a form of social ranking within a group, where some members are subordinate to others.

Answer 27

• The position of the member in hierarchy is determined by the level of agonistic behaviour. • Each member carries out specific roles in the group • Levels of testosterone and oestrogen determines the order in the hierarchy.

Answer 28

This is the adaptive change in behaviour of an organism due to previous /past experience.

Answer 29

• Learned behaviour is acquired during the life time of an individual as a result of constant experience. • It’s a relative permanent change in behaviour • Learning is not directly observed but manifest itself in the activities of an individual. • Learned behaviour depends on practice and experience of the past situations • It’s adaptable in the form that the information learnt in one situation can be used to solve problems in new situation. • What’s learnt vary from one individual to another thus learned behaviour is also referred to as individual characteristic behaviour. • It can be modified if environment changes. - cannot be inherited

Answer 30

The ability to store and retrieve information.

Answer 31

- Habituation - Associative learning ( Classical conditioning & operant learning/ trial and error learning) - Insight - Imprinting - Latent learning/ exploratory learning - Imitation

Answer 32

This is the type of learned behaviour in which repeated exposure of an organism to a stimulus without an associated reward or punishment results in decreased responsiveness. Eg Birds stop to respond to scare craw (ignore) which used to prevent them from landing.

Answer 33

• It avoids wasting time and energy on harmless stimuli. • Time and energy is used for important activities like feeding; courtship, mating, parenting, protection, acquiring territory. • It prevents over stimulation and damaging of receptors and effectors. • The first response to the stimulus is vital as a precaution in case of danger. • Avoid responding to trivial stimuli and respond only when appropriate to stimuli with survival value. • The animal stops responding to a stimulus that is not associated with a reward or punishment. • Prevents the animal to perform escape responses so frequently that is has no opportunity to do important work

Answer 34

This is a type of learning where animals learn to associate their response with either a reward or punishment or to associate one stimulus with the other.

Answer 35

Is form of associative learning where a stimulus which doesn’t normally elicit/ evoke a particular response elicits it due to organism learning to associate the stimulus with one that normally elicits it. E.g. Pavlov’s condition of his dog to the metronome (bell’s sound) and food The the dog associated the sound of the bell with food.

Answer 36

• Evoked after many trials. • A delay in conditioned response occurs. • The response involves association of stimuli. • It is enhanced/reinforced by repetitions. • It’s involuntary. • It decays with time after removal of the unconditioned stimuli. • Removal of the cerebral cortex affects the response; loss of memory. i.e. response loss on removal of cerebral cortex.

Answer 37

a) Allows the animals to modify their behaviour in such a way that maximum rewards are obtained and punishments are avoided e.g. animals get to learn about their predators (punishment avoided). b) Predators their prey(reward) maximized. c) Is important in wild animals e.g. predators learn to associate unpalatable animals with certain marking or colouration and thus avoid eating them. d) In human beings, we get conditioned ourselves to take over at the sound of powerful gunfire.

Answer 38

This is a type of associative learning whereby an organism learns to solve problems by making a number of trials and hence rewarded and learns to minimize errors in which it is punished. Eg When a rat is put in a skinner box, learning that tapping on a lever results in food release from dispenser. But tapping wires it gets electric shock.

Answer 39

(i) The speed with which it ceases to make errors. (ii) The length of time between trials that can keep remembering the content without the repeated trials. (iii) The complexity of the situation to which it will respond/cate.

Answer 40

• It’s involuntary. • Removal of the cerebral cortex doesn’t affect the response. • Enhanced by repetitions. • Associative stimulus follows the action and doesn’t need to be presented with the action. • The response improves with to stimulus.

Answer 41

• In higher animals like primates, it enhances quick learning of complex situations and retaining of the relevant information for a relatively longer time. • In lower animals like worms and insects, enhances learning of simple problems although at a slow rate.

Answer 42

Latent learning or exploratory learning is a type of learning that involves solving problems by using previous learning experiences related to the problem. It also involves an organism exploring its environment and learning useful information to be used later in life.

Answer 43

An example of latent learning is a rat recognizing a hole in its habitat to be used for escape when in trouble. Another example is a hungry rat placed in a maze mastering the maze after about 12 trials when rewarded with food or water. If the rat is allowed to stay in the maze before the trials begin, it requires fewer trials to gain mastery of the maze.

Answer 44

Latent learning enables rapid escape and finding refuge, allows animals to navigate their environment, and helps animals learn and remember the characteristics and landmarks of their habitat.

Answer 45

Imprinting is a simple and specialized form of learning that occurs during critical periods in an animal's life and involves forming associations with other organisms or large objects they first interact with.

Answer 46

In imprinting, young animals tend to recognize and follow objects or animals they first see, often imprinting on their parents. This type of learning is best developed in vertebrates, especially mammals.

Answer 47

Examples of imprinting include F. Lorenz's observation that goslings and ducklings deprived of their parents would follow him and use him as a substitute parent. In human beings, children are known to imprint on their parents and caretakers. Additionally, if a young mule is reared by foster parents of another species, it will subsequently pair with a member of that species rather than its own.

Answer 48

Imprinting enables offspring to acquire essential skills possessed by their parents, such as learning to fly in birds, improves the survival chances of the organism by creating a strong bond with the parent, and influences the behavior of the organism later in life. It determines future behavioral patterns, provides protection from predators and parental care, and helps young ones develop a sense of belonging. The parent also provides food, warmth, shelter, and teaches important environmental features.

Answer 49

Insight learning is the highest form of learning involving immediate comprehension and response to a new situation without trial and error, based on advanced perceptual abilities.

Answer 50

Insight learning involves internal mental processes or intelligence, putting familiar things together in new ways (reasoning or thinking), and requires high intelligence, which is the ability to carry out abstract thinking. It is most difficult to interpret and is more developed in mammals, especially high primates like humans.

Answer 51

Animal intelligence is assessed by the speed with which it solves a problem it has not encountered before.

Answer 52

An example of insight learning is when a chimpanzee, placed in a room with a ripe banana at a height it couldn't reach, used various strategies such as stacking boxes and tying sticks together to eventually reach the banana.

Answer 53

Insight learning ensures the survival of an organism by avoiding adverse and dangerous conditions through solving problems immediately and leads to discovery.

Answer 54

Imitation is a form of social learning that involves the rapid spreading of certain types of animal behavior from one area to another by copying the behavior of another animal, usually of the same species.

Answer 55

Imitation is not limited to a critical period. An example of imitation is the development of hunting skills in dogs.

Behavior Flashcards

(79 cards)