Ethology Flashcards
While not a specific subject in the test, ethology runs throughout the field of behavioral science, and may appear on most sections of the GRE subject test. Studying this deck will help you prepare for the possibility of encountering ethology-related questions.
What three ethologists shared the Nobel prize in 1973?
Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch
Ethology is the study of _________ behaviors.
animal
What did Charles Darwin believe was instrumental to evolution?
natural selection
Who was the founder of ethology research?
Konrad Lorenz
What subjects within ethology is Konrad Lorenz known for?
- animal aggression
- imprinting
- releasing stimuli
- fixed action patterns
Why did Konrad Lorenz believe animal aggression was innate?
He believed, based on natural selection, that aggression in animals ensured that the strongest in a species survived, passing on their genes to future generations, and was therefore instinctual.
Who do baby birds think is their mommy?
Konrad Lorenz found that baby birds (and some other species) form an attachment to the first moving object they see after birth. This is called imprinting.
According to Konrad Lorenz (and further supported by the research of Nikolaas Tinbergen), what triggered fixed action patterns?
releasing stimuli (or sign stimuli or simply releasers)
What is a fixed action pattern?
It is a chain of behaviors or events within a species brought on by a releasing stimuli.
What are the four characteristics of fixed action patterns?
- uniformity
- performed by most of a species
- more complex than reflexes
- unstoppable once they have started
Following Konrad Lorenz’s earlier reseach, what did Nikolaas Tinbergen’s research focus on?
releasing stimuli
Tinbergen made models and used them in natural settings to observe the behaviors of animals.
Briefly explain Tinbergen’s experiment with stickelback fish and releasing stimuli.
Male stickleback fish attack each other in the spring when their bellies become red. To test that the belly color was the releasing stimulus, Tinbergen made realistic stickleback models with no red bellies and crude models with red bellies. Supporting his hypothesis, the fish attacked the red-bellied models.
What did Tinbergen find during his research with herring gull chicks?
Herring gull chicks pecked at their parents’ red-tipped bills to get food. Crude models showed the releasing stimulus to be the color red on the bill, and pecking intensity correlated with greater contrast between the bill and the red tip.
What is a supernormal sign stimulus?
It is an artificial releasing stimulus whose effect is greater than the naturally occurring releasing stimulus.
Who discovered that honeybees communicate through dance?
Karl von Frisch
Who coined the term “fight or flight”?
Walter Cannon
What is the fight or flight response?
It is a series of physiological changes that provides an animal with the tools necessary to flee from or fight a threat.
Examples might include changes in respiration, blood flow, pupil dilation, and heart rate.
After the fight or flight response, what happens to the body, according to Walter Cannon?
The body self-regulates to return to homeostasis.
What is the term for a molecular unit of heredity?
gene
Genes are made of DNA and RNA molecules and are carried in chromosomes
How many chromosomes are in the nucleus of a human cell?
23 pairs
What are gametes and how do they differ from other human cells?
In humans, gametes are the sperm and ovum.
While human cells have 23 pairs of chomosomes (making them diploids), gametes only have 23 single chromosomes (making them haploids).
Are zygotes haploids or diploids? Why?
diploids
When the gametes from parents meet in the fertilized egg cell, the 23 single chromosomes become paired, making the zygote a diploid.
What is a genotype?
the entirety of a genetic cell’s makeup
The genotype includes both dominant and recessive genes
What is an allele?
It is any particular version of a gene, including possible variations for each dominant and recessive gene (dominant-dominant, dominant-recessive, or recessive-recessive).
The sum of your physical characteristics is also known as what?
your phenotype
What idea is central to the theory of evolution?
natural selection
What is natural selection?
It is the idea that organisms or species are more likely to survive if they adapt to fit their environment.
What does genetic drift refer to?
It refers to the genotypic pruning or flourishing within a population through generations.
What is reproduction and the furthering of genes called in terms of evolution?
fitness
Organisms or animals that are concerned with furthering the entire species rather than just themselves are favoring what?
inclusive fitness
The desire to protect your own genes (and thus, the genes of your family) is known as what?
kin selection
Inclusive fitness is born of kin selection.