exam 1 Flashcards
(39 cards)
4 levels of analysis?
1: mechanistic: how is a behavior produced? what causes a behavior? (how does it work in the moment)
2: developmental: influence of experience? is there a genetic basis? (how did it get like this)
3: functional: what is the purpose of behavior? how does it influence fitness? (whats the point)
4: historical: is behvaior consered? what is the ancestral behavior? (evo history)
methods to study animal behavior (4)
1: measuring and recording (detailed observations, also ETHOGRAM –> use categories or GPS)
2: life history and demography (measuring who is in the pop –> patterns reveal health and fitness)
3: physiology (studying functions of a living animal)
4: predigrees (look at fitness patterns of natural selection/show genetic relationship)
what is hypothesis
claims about world that are testable (causal relationship, make specific predicitons)
what does a critical prediction allow us to do?
allow us to distinguish between competing hypotheses (context specific behavior separates habituation and recognition hypothesis)
what are the major features of animal body plans? (3)
1: symmetry (simple animals lack symmetry, complex animals have radial (jellyfish) or bilateral symmetry (bee)
2: body cavity (jellyfish no interal body cavity, we are basically tubes)
3: as organisms increase in size, the relative enrgy requirements are lower
square cube law
volume scales with a cube, and grow faster than areas –> smaller animals are relatively stronger (muscle mass increases relatively slowly as animal size increases)
coelomate
have a body covering, tissue-filled region, digestive tract, and coelom – we are tubes
protostome
mouth first
deuterostome
mouth second - we are this our anus came first and our mouth second
homology
shared features due to common ancestry (same origin) like forelimb of a dog and arm of a human – other animals can have homologous features but are contorted
radial v bilateral symmetry
radial = jellyfish, bilateral = single axis
What is allometry? How does it relate to body size scaling?
allometry: how body parts grow to overall body size
hyper-allo: body part gets bigger than expected
hypo: gorws smaller than animal
isometry: everything grows at the same rate
how does morphology influence behavior? some animated film with this?
shows how animals move and interact (wings in bird enable flight)
class signals
class signals (simple, general) - distinguish species, sex, or age - traits differ btwn groups but are similiar within a group (ex: ducks have clear male and female traits) juvenile vs adult plumage - reduces aggression in young birds
individual signals
individual signals (complex, specific) - identify individuals within a group, traits must be stable over time and distinctive, low correlation among traits (voice, scent)
4 factors promoting individual identity
1: competition (female mice use urine to track rivals, males mark and defend territories // help assess and rmbr competitors)
2: choice (female mice prefer males with exclusive territories)
3: care (leads to stronger social bonds)
4: cooperation (dear enemy effect: animals recognize familiar neighbors vs stangers - habituation: reduced response to repeated exposure, recognition: distinguishing individuals like songbird specific calls, benefit: reduces unnecessary aggression
specialized processing of faces in humans and primates
configuration processing: faces focus on arrangement of features
inversion effect: inverted faces disript the configuration
part-based processing: focus eyes and moth less efficient for face recognition
How can we use a phylogeny to learn about the evolutionary history of behaviors?
they show the relatedness among species - can estimate the traits of ancestral species - infer behaviors of extinct species - estimate when a behavior evolved
Acceptance Threshold & Asymmetry in Reed Warblers
Acceptance Threshold Model:
Warblers set a threshold for accepting eggs, balancing rejection costs (damaging own eggs) vs. acceptance costs (raising cuckoo chicks).
The more common cuckoos are, the higher the cost of acceptance errors.
Asymmetry Argument:
Rejection errors (ejecting own eggs) are risky.
Acceptance errors (raising cuckoo chicks) are safer if cuckoos are rare, but costly if frequent.
What evidence is there that sensory receptors are costly?
brain has constant cost so the retina doesn’t show same cost savings as metabolism
faster receptors that detect more also cost more
how do predators use electroreception in hunting?
detect in muddy sea, cells generate electric field due to charged particles inside them - they sense these electric fields
What is detected with a lateral line? Who has lateral lines?
detects movement and vibrations in the water - sense objects or prey // amphibians and fish have them - sensitive detection
What is a sensory homunculus? What does it depict?
visual depiction of human body and shows how they are represented in the brain - proportional to the amount of brain area dedicated to processing sensory info (high concetrations of sensory receptors take up more space)
Compare and contrast vertebrate camera-like eyes and arthropod compound eyes.
V: single pupil, focused light (larger eyes = larger image), higher acuity, limited field of view, adaption for diff environments, lens moves to focus
A: multiple ammtidia, wide view, no focusing, lower acuity, lens fixed
