measurement of behaviour

Question 1

What are Tinbergen’s “Four Whys of Behaviour”?

Answer 1

The four whys of behaviour according to Tinbergen are:

Causation
Development
Function
Evolution

Question 2

(Four Whys of Behaviour) ——– refers to the mechanisms that cause the behaviour, such as hormonal, neural, or genetic factors.

Answer 2

Causation (Control)

Question 3

(Four Whys of Behaviour) ——- focuses on how the behaviour changes over an individual’s lifetime, from birth to maturity.

Answer 3

Ontogeny (Development)

Question 3

(Four Whys of Behaviour) ——- refers to the purpose of survival or adaptive value of the behaviour in the animal’s life.

Answer 3

Function (survival/adaptive)

Question 4

(Four Whys of Behaviour) ——- looks at how the behaviour has evolved over generations due to natural selection.

Answer 4

Phylogeny (Evolution)

Question 5

What is the fifth “Why” of behaviour

Answer 5

The fifth “Why” (Burgkhardt, 1997 ) is Private Experience - individual experience

Question 6

A descriptive catalogue of behavours that occur within a species

Answer 6

Ethogram

Question 7

2 Fixed action patterens

Answer 7

Rituals, Displays

Question 8

Early Learning in a short critical period, irreversable, prefigures later responses

Answer 8

Imprinting

Question 8

Learning without obvious reward

Answer 8

Latent Learning

Question 9

Solving a problem through percieving interrelationships

Answer 9

Insight learning

Question 10

behaviour (act) or structure which alters behaviour of others- effective because of receiver’s response

Answer 10

Signal

Question 11

evolutionary process that stereotypes a cue into a signal

Answer 11

Ritualization

Question 12

feature of the world, animate or inanimate, that can be used as a guide to future action

Answer 12

Cue

Question 13

IGNALS: COSTS & HANDICAPS signal whose cost is greater than required by sheer efficacy (effectiveness)

Answer 13

Handicap:

– signal may be costly to produce (e.g. huge size, cheek flanges in adult male orangutans

Question 14

loss of fitness resulting from making a signal

Answer 14

Cost:

Question 15

signal whose intensity is causally related to quality being signaled & which cannot be faked

Answer 15

Index

(e.g., olfactory secretions used for marking)

Question 16

signal whose reliability does not depend on its cost- i.e. not a handicap- & which can be made by most members of the population- i.e. not an index

Answer 16

Minimal-cost signal (e.g., communal troop defensive vocalisations)

Question 17

a signal whose form is similar to its meaning

Answer 17

Icon (e.g. pointing)

Question 18

a signal whose form is unrelated to its meaning

Answer 18

Symbol (e.g., language)

Question 19

What are the two main themes of why chimpanzees are so intelligent

Answer 19

The need to navigate Social challenges and ecological problms

Question 20

Studying behaviour can lead to an issue of

Answer 20

Observer Bias and Observer effects

Question 21

Who revolutionised the study of animals - observation

Answer 21

Jeanne Altmann 1974