test 1 Flashcards
(121 cards)
1
Q
variation
A
individuals within a species display variability in both physiological and behavioral traits
2
Q
Heritability
A
offsprings inherit traits from their parents
3
Q
Survival and reproduction
A
if a certain trait promotes survival or reproduction they will have a greater chance of transmitting to their offsprings
4
Q
Fitness
A
ability to survive and reproduce
5
Q
Adaptations
A
which are production of evolution traits that improve fitness
6
Q
Exaptation
A
these adaptations to one environmental problem that improve fitness
7
Q
Byproducts
A
side effect of adaptations. (belly buttons)
8
Q
Random effects
A
chance mutations
9
Q
Speciation
A
separated groups of species that can no longer breed with each other
10
Q
Continuity hypothesis
A
the idea that trait difference will be quantitative not qualitative
11
Q
Anthropomorphism
A
the attribution of human characteristics to animals
12
Q
Anecdotal method
A
based on personal observation and recollections rather than a regulated study
13
Q
Clever hans
A
when an animal or human senses what someone wants them to do even though they are not deliberately being given signals
14
Q
Morgan’s cannon
A
keep it simple. No need to attribute complex thought process to animals if their behavior can be explained by simple or basic mechanisms
15
Q
Behaviorism
A
The idea that behavior is the only justifiable object of study in psychology is associated with a subdiscipline of the field
16
Q
Radical behaviorism
A
The extreme discipline that mentalistic states have no role in behavioral change
17
Q
Methodological behaviorism
A
research that involved quantifiable measures of behavioral output and tight control of extraneous variables
18
Q
Animal thought and insight
A
Stemmed from behaviorism in humans
19
Q
Ethology
A
the scientific study of animal behavior
20
Q
Instincts
A
behavioral pattern that appear in full form the first time they are displayed
21
Q
Fixed action patterns
A
stereotyped, species-typical behaviors that occur in a rigid order and are triggered by specific stimuli in the environment.
22
Q
imprinting
A
a type of learning in which exposure to specific stimuli or events usually at a young age alters behavioral traits of the animal.
23
Q
Tinbergen’s 4 questions
A
Adaptive value. What is the function of the behavior?
Evolution. How did the behavior develop across evolution and how does it compare to the behavior of closely related species?
Ontogeny. How does the behavior change across the lifespan of the organism?
Immediate causation. What are the internal mechanisms that produce the behavior?
24
Q
Proximate Causation
A
explaining behavior in terms of developments and physiology
25
Ultimate Causation
Explaining behavior in terms of adaptive value and evolution.
26
Behavioral ecology
examines how animals interact with their environments
27
Sociobiology
the principles of population biology and evolutionary theory are applied to social organizations.
28
Common adaptation
The process whereby individual species develop different strategies in dealing with the same fitness related problems
29
Visual adaptation
the visual system that works by absorbing light of particular wavelengths along the electromagnetic spectrum.
30
Bioluminescence
To emit and detect chemical light, which is created when organic compounds are mixed together.
31
Binocular vision
When the two visual fields overlap. Much of what is seen with the right eye is also seen with the left eye.
32
Sensory drive hypothesis
Speciation by sensory drive is a special cause of speciation by natural selection. When pops. occupy new habitats w/ different sensory environments. Natural selection adapts to maximize fitness.
33
Sensory bias
situations in which individual of a species respond with increased vigor to stimuli that are exaggerated versions of naturally occurring stimuli.
34
Sensory exploitation
implies that sensory signals which were important for one process have been co-opted by another.
Also describes situations in which a trait evolved to capitalized on an existing preference.
Ex. Orange Guppies
35
Supernormal stimuli
heightened responses to exaggerated versions of natural stimuli.
Ex. Birds protecting largest eggs over normal size ones.
36
Sensitive periods
The period in which experience-dependent changes can have profound and enduring effects on development
37
Compensatory plasticity hypothesis
a loss of deficit in one sense leads to a heightened capacity in another. Its a developmental process in that altered sensitivity to visual and olfactory cues only occurs in early life.
38
Sensory detection
begins at the sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue) which then transmit info through the central nervous system.
39
Neuron architecture
soma, axon, presynaptic terminal, action potential, synapse, dendrites.
40
Transduction
The sensory receptors translate physical events into electrical signals
41
Sensory processing
each sensory modality has a distinct pathway
42
Frequency coding
as the intensity of the physical stimulus increases, so does the frequency of action potential.
43
Population coding’
as the stimulus intensity increases the number of sensory receptors firing action potentials also increases
44
Perception
the interpretation of these signals which occurs when sensory information is processed, organized, and filtered within the central nervous system.
45
Psychophysics
The study of the relationship between sensations and perception.
46
Just noticeable difference (JND)
the amount of which 2 stimuli must differ so that the difference can be detected. Is not an absolute value but a relative one.
47
Lateral geniculate nucleus
Most of the sensory receptors in they eye project to a region of the thalamus
48
Feature integration theory
elements of sensory input are coded at the initial stages of processing.
49
Optic flow
to describe the movement of elements in a visual scene, relative to the observer.
50
Stimulus filtering
the process of separating and extracting meaningful information from the abundance and diversity of sensory cues in the environment.
51
Sign stimuli
the essential features of a stimulus which are necessary to elicit a specific behavioral response
52
Releasers
sign stimuli are sometimes called
53
Attention
mental process that selects which information will be processed further which allowed individuals to focus on particular stimuli.
54
Selective attention
the ability to attend to a limited range of sensory information while actively inhibiting competing imput
55
Sustained attention
to maintain a focus on one aspect of their surroundings for extended periods of time.
56
Divided attention
the ability to process simultaneously sensory input for more than one source.
57
Learning vs Memory
the mental processes of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval.
58
Encoding
first stage of memory processing. The conversion of incoming information into neural signals that will be used for later processing.
59
Consolidation
Second stage of memory processing. The process of modifying encoded representation so that they become more stable over time.
60
Retrieval
Third stage of memory processing. The mental activity of accessing this stored information.
61
Working memory and its evolution
Memories being transferred from short term to long term. New environmental info. updates memories of food sources across generations.
62
Reference memory
active process of referring to information in long term store.
63
Non-declarative memory
types of memory that do not depend on awareness or explicit knowledge to be express.
64
Habituation and Sensitazation
The response may decrease with repeat experience.
The response may increase with experience
65
Perceptual priming
is the facilitated identification of a stimulus as a consequence of prior exposure to the stimulus
66
Classical conditioning
the process whereby a stimulus through association with a motivationally significant event acquires the ability to elicit a response.
67
Procedural memory
gradual change in behavior based on feedback
68
Declarative memory
knowledge based system that is expressed through explicit statements. It is flexible in that it combines multiple pieces of information retrieved from long term store.
69
Semantic memory
describe general knowledge of the world that is not tagged to a particular event
70
Episodic memory
knowledge for events in a personal past is called.
71
Neuroscience of memory
current evidence points to commonalities in the cellular, molecular, and synaptic mechanisms that underlie different types of memory.
72
Long-term potentiation
a process involving persistent strengthening of synapses that leads to a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between neurons
73
US, UR, CS, CR
US: food, UR the salivation, CS bell and CR salivation.
74
Operant condition
is a change in behavior that produces an outcome either in the lab or natural environment can be described as an operant
75
Law of effect
animals tend to repeat behaviors that produce satisfying effects and refrain from repeating those that lead to unsatisfying events.
76
Positive and Negative reinforcement
P: describes a contingency between a response and an outcome that increases the probability of the response.
N: increases a behavior in this case because it removes an averse stimulus.
77
Positive Negative punishment
p: adding an aversive stimulus after an unwanted behavior to discourage a person from repeating the behavior.
Ex spanking
N: omission decreases the probability of responding by withholding an outcome.
ex timeout.
78
Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)
Animals display a certain stimuli associated with adverse events.
ex fear or anxiety when dogs go to vet
79
Suppression ratio
LP during CS/(LP during CS + LP during an equal period of time preceding CS)
LP=lever presses
79
Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA)
consumption of the food was associated with gastric illness usually throwing up.
80
Discrete trials vs Free operant
Subjects have the opportunity to make one correct response for each time they are placed in a testing apparatus.
Subjects have the opportunity respond repeatedly once they are placed in the testing apparatus.
81
Schedules of reinforcement
the relationship between responding and reinforcement
82
Fixed ratio & Variable ratio
if the number of responses is set its a fixed.
if the number of required responses varies about a mean value it variable.
83
Fixed interval & Variable ratio
fixed: the time from the presentation of one reinforcer to the possibility to the next is constant.
Variable: the time from the presentation of one reinforcer to the possibility to the next is average.
84
Associative conditioning as adaptations
they have been conserved across evolution
85
Equipotentiality
the idea that associations between different stimuli responses and reinforcers could be formed with equal ease.
86
Adaptive specializations
the relative ease with which animals acquire certain associations
87
Mechanisms
proximate explanations describe associative learning in terms of causal factors that produce optimal conditioning.
88
Informativeness
the more frequently two stimuli are paired the stronger the association between them will be.
89
Latent inhibition
in which previous exposure to the CS in the absence of the US retards subsequent conditioning to the CS
90
Blocking
CS2 conveys no new information about the occurence of the US so conditioning does not occur
91
Temporal contiguity
easier to form an association between two stimuli if they occur close together in time.
92
Stimulus salience
it difficult to eliminate cues that are not explicitly part of the experimental design.
93
Overshadowing
one stimulus acquires better conditioning than other stimuli in the environment even if they are equal predictors of the US
94
Extinction
gradual reduction in responding
95
Sensory preconditioning
two stimuli (CS1 and CS2) are presented together with no US. If CS2 elicits a CR animals must have formed an S-S association (CS1-CS2) prior to conditioning
96
Preparatory response theory
theory of classical conditioning that proposes that the purpose of the CR is to prepare the organism for the presentation of the US which allows for situations in which the CR and the UR are different
97
Rescorla-Wagner model
how animals code the logical relationship between events in their environment. The model formulated to explain classical conditioning and the phenomenon of blocking.
98
Dispersal
the movement away from a parent or conspecific population due to declining resources, overcrowding or mate competition.
99
Migration
the seasonal movement between spatially distinct habitats.
100
Sex differences in spatial memory
there is no sex difference on this measure for species in which males and females show similar patterns of territory exploration.
101
Orientation
an angle measured with respect to a reference.
102
Kinesis
non-directional movement in response to a stimulus.
103
Taxis
is directional movement in response to a stimulus.
104
Landmarks
stimuli that have a fixed spatial relationship to a goal location.
105
Navigation – small scale
short distanced traveled within a familiar territory.
106
Path integration
allows animals to return to a starting location by keeping track of the combined distance and direction travelled on a single journey.
107
Cognitive maps
how animals form a spatial relationship among landmarks and bacons as well as their own animals own position with respect to these cues.
108
Navigation – large scale
long distance travel to a goal often through unfamiliar territory.
108
Hormonal relations to spatial navigation
small scale
-females: positional cues
-males: directional cues
109
Homing
the ability to return to a nest or burrow after displacement to a distant often unfamiliar site.
110
Migration
seasonal movement btwn spatially distinct habitats
111
Compasses
global reference system that allows them to determine their own position in relationship to external referent.
112
Sun
the sun's position to maintain a constant direction during migration.
113
Star
stellar constellations the organization of stars as directional cues.
114
Magnetic
the earths magnetic field as a directional cue
115
Olfactory
the birds learn how different atmospheric gases are spatially distributed at their loft.
116
Neural mechanisms of navigation
controlled by more than one mechanism.
117
Hippocampus
cognitive maps are formed in the hippocampus
118
Retrosplenial cortex
which receives direct input from the hippocampus and sends connections to the striatum and other brain regions involved in motor control.
119
Striatum
acts as a response reference system by signaling to the rest of the brain which spatial responces.
