Behavior Vocab - Ecology Flashcards
(23 cards)
Fixed Action pattern
preprogrammed response to a stimulus
Habituation
loss of responsiveness to unimportant stimuli or stimuli that provides no feedback
Imprinting
innate behavior learned during critical period early in life
Associative learning
one stimulus is associated with another (Classical conditioning - Pavlov)
Operant conditioning
trial-and-error learning (aposometric predator training)
Insight learning
ability to reason through a problem the first time through with no prior experience
Observational learning
learning by watching someone else do it first
Kinesis
change in the speed of movement in response to a stimulus. (Organisms will move faster in bad environments and slower in good ones)
Migration
cyclic movement of animals over long distances according to the time of year
Taxis
reflex movement toward or away from a stimulus
Agonistic behavior
conflict behavior over access to a resource. Often a matter of which animal can mount the most threatening display and scare the other into submission
Dominance hierarchies
ranking of power amongst the members of a group; subject to change. Since members of the group know the order, less energy is wasted in conflicts over food and resources
Territoriality
defense of territory to keep others out
Altruistic behavior
action in which an organism helps another at its own expense
Reciprocal altruism
animals behave altruistically toward others who are not relatives, hoping that the favor will be returned sometime in the future
Foraging
feeding behavior of an individual. Animals have a search image that directs them to food
Optimal Foraging
natural selection favors those whose foraging strategies that maximize the differential between costs and benefits, If the effort involved in obtaining food outweighs the nutritive value of the food, forget about it.
Inclusive fitness
the ability of individuals to pass their genes not only through the production of their own offspring, but also by providing aid to enable closely related individuals to produce offspring
Coefficient of relatedness
statistic that represents the average proportion of genes tow individuals have in common. The higher the value, the more likely they would be to altruistically aid one another
chemical communication
communication through the use of chemical signals, such as pheromones
visual communication
communication through the use of visual cues, such as the tail feather displays of peacocks
auditory communication
communication through the use of sound, such as the chirping of frogs in the summer
tactile communication
communication through the use of touch, such as a handshake in humans
