lecture 6 - Tinbergen's 4 questions Flashcards
(30 cards)
what are Tinbergen’s 4 questions?
1) what is going on in this animal right now? (Causation/Mechanism)
2) What value does this behaviour provide? (Function)
3) What in the past led to this behaviour in this animal? (Development/ Ontogeny)
4) What led to this species possessing this behaviour? (Evolution)
what is causation?
- what stimuli triggers beh?
- how is the beh represented in the brain?
- what cog influences this beh?
- what hormones influence this beh?
- what neurons and muscles control this beh?
are all animals stimulated by the same stimuli?
no - depends on the shape of the stimulus and how it moves
what is supernormal stimuli?
Stimuli are recognised by matching a template (abstract shapes, colours etc) - These templates can be hacked by unnatural stimuli which better fit the internal rules.
what does beh involve?
movement - so uses muscles which require motor neurons
what neurons does sensing require?
sensory neurons
what is a fixed action pattern (FAP)? -Lorenz
“Innate” (or “instinctive”), Species Typical, Fixed (or stereotyped) responses that are typically unlearned and performed in response to a trigger (“releaser”)
what is an organisation of complex behaviours?
we are more flexible than FAPs - we don’t just see a trigger and act on it
what is an ethological action map?
motor actions represented by “maps” in motor cortex of brain - this doesnt correlate neatly with anatomy
what are hormones?
chemical messengers secreted by endocrine glands (or sometimes by neurons) and travel through the bloodstream
what does oxytocin do?
changes in the brain which influences how the animal reacts
what happens to a sheep when it gives birth relating to oxytocin?
releases oxytocin – feeds back and makes changes to the olfactory bulb which means they have a heightened sense of smell for lambs
relating to the Portia spider what does trial and error mean?
learning to get the best strategy to get its prey
what are memories for specific events relating to the study of the birds?
they buried either their fave food (a worm) or an okay food (nut)
- Remembered What (worms/nuts) Where (side) and When (4hr/120hrs)
- this meant they had food that was good rather than inedible
what are the diff aspects of dev?
1) growing up (maturation)
2) environmental influences (dev induction, parental environment, resilience)
3) learning
what is maturation?
Changes in behaviour due to physical changes in neural and muscular systems
does maturation require experience?
pecking of chicks on day of birth was poor but by 2 days was very accurate
- whether reared in dark or light didnt matter
what is an abiotic environment?
not living e.g. temp, humidity - can have impacts on how things dev
what is the effect of cold on the larvae of parasitoid wasps?
Lower learning ability
Lower discrimination ability
Poorer decision-making
Worse reproductive success
- Cold can have a drastic impact on the adult
what is phenotypic plasticity?
How you can fit your phenotype to where you are
- The ability of the organism to alter its phenotype in response to environmental input.
what is plasticity the outcome of?
natural selection and it is dependent on genes
what is learning?
Change in behaviour as a result of experience.
Learning can be “open-ended” (possible throughout life) or restricted to “sensitive periods”.
Imprinting, habituation, and associative learning
where does the diff of dev and lang learning come from? - Kuhl’s study
data from American and Japanese infants and their ability to discriminate between La and Ra sounds
At 6-8 months all infants show the same level of discrimination
By 10-12 months infants perform differently: American infants are better able to discriminate Ra and La sounds than the Japanese infants
what is dev?
another possible source of variation alongside genetic variation
- channeling
- self regulation
- equifinality
