Chapter 51 Reading Quiz

1. Chapter 51 Reading Quiz • What an animal does and how it does it is known as ____. • From what 2 main sources is behavior derived? • The full set of food-obtaining behaviors is known as _____. • The modification of behavior resulting from specific experiences is known as ____.

2. 1. What is “behavioral biology”? • Behavior  what an animal does and how it does it • Biology  the study of life • Studying these two together gives scientists ideas as to how behavior affects a species’ survival 

3. 2. What are the sources of behavior? • Genes (nature) 2. Environment (nurture) 

4. 3. What is innate behavior? • Innate behavior  behaviors that are present at birth • These do not appear to be influenced by environmental differences • Cause may be for increasing the fitness of the species 

5. 4. Define ethology and describe the terms associated with this. • Ethology  descriptive science based on studies of animals in the natural environment • The “fixed-action pattern” which is a highly stereotyped, innate behavior • It is triggered by an external “sign stimulus” • Ex: feeding behavior in birds - FAP: begging behavior of chicks - sign stimulus: parent landing at nest to feed 

6. 5. Describe the examples of behavioral ecology (songbirds, foraging behavior). • Behavioral ecology  a field of study that assumes animals increase fitness through optimal behavior • Optimal behavior  a behavior that maximizes individual fitness (natural selection) • Learning songs – as a bird matures, it learns more songs, and females prefer to mate with mature males with more songs 

8. 6. What is learning? How is this different from maturation? What is habituation? • Learning  the modification of behavior by experience • Maturation  development of neuromuscular systems that allows behavioral improvement • Habituation  learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli or stimuli that convey little or no information ex: the “cry-wolf” effect 

9. 7. Describe the process of imprinting. • Imprinting  a form of learning that is limited to a specific time period in an animal’s life and is generally irreversible • Ex: geese • Imprinting stimulus: an object in the environment to which the response is directed • Critical period: a limited time during which imprinting can occur 

11. 8. Describe the variety of learning techniques: associative, conditioning, and play. • Associative  the ability of many animals to associate one stimulus with another • Conditioning  - classical: type of associative learning; ex: Pavlov’s dog - operant: trial and error learning • Play  no apparent goal but uses movements closely associated with goal-directed behaviors - Ex: young lions 

13. 9. What is cognition? How does this have to do with migration? • Cognition  the ability of an animal’s nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information gathered by sensory receptors • Movement from place to place happens using “cognitive maps” • Migration is the regular movement of animals over relatively long distances 

15. 10. What do we know of consciousness? • Consciousness is known only to the individual that experiences it and it is not associated with any observable behavioral or physiological change • It is difficult to determine the consciousness of nonhuman animals 

16. 11. Describe sociobiology and social behavior. Describe the three competitive behaviors. • Sociobiology  study of social behavior that has evolutionary theory as its conceptual framework • Social behavior  any interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species • Agonistic  a contest of threatening and submissive behavior that determines which competitor gains access to a resource • Dominance hierarchies  top-ranked animals are assured resources (wolf packs) • Territoriality  defense of areas used for feeding, mating, or rearing young 

18. 12. Describe mating behavior. • Courtship  complex rituals unique to each species - assures no threat, proper species, proper sex, and good physiological condition • Mating systems  different for each species - monogamous  one male, one female - polygamous  one individual of one sex, many of the other sex - parental care 

20. 13. Describe the diverse modes of communication for the purpose of social interaction. • Communication  the intentional transmission of information between individuals • Animals use visual, auditory, chemical, tactile and electrical signals to communicate with others of their own species and other species 

23. 14. What is altruism? How is this beneficial to an individual? • Altruism  a behavior that reduces an individual’s fitness and increases the fitness of the recipient of the behavior • Ex: when parents sacrifice their well-being to aid their offspring • Ex: squirrels cry out when danger approaches 

25. 15. Describe how sociobiology connects to the human culture. • Behavioral characteristics are expressions of genes favored by natural selection • Connection between biological evolution and human culture • Ex: cultural taboos on incest - inbreeding may increase genetic disorders - many species avoid incest - is there an innate aversion to incest or is this an acquired behavior? Nature vs nurture again 