Introduction to behavior

1. Introduction to behavior • A demonstration…

2. stimulus response cartoon here

4. Introduction to behavior • What is behavior? • A rapid and appropriate response to an environmental stimulus…

5. Introduction to behavior • What is behavior? • A rapid and appropriate response to an environmental stimulus… • How do they do this?

6. Introduction to behavior • What is behavior? • A rapid and appropriate response to an environmental stimulus… • Why do they do this?

7. Introduction to behavior • What is behavior? • A rapid and appropriate response to an environmental stimulus… • Why do they do this? • What would be an inappropriate response?

8. Introduction to behavior • How does behavior become adaptive?

9. Introduction to behavior • What are the important elements of the environment that select for behavioral characteristics?

10. Introduction to behavior • What are the important elements of the environment that select for behavioral characteristics? • Abiotic…

11. Introduction to behavior • What are the important elements of the environment that select for behavioral characteristics? • Abiotic… • Biotic…

12. Introduction to behavior • What are the important elements of the environment that select for behavioral characteristics? • Abiotic… • Biotic… • Social!!!

13. Introduction to behavior • Some historical context…

14. Introduction to behavior • Some historical context… • The “comparative psychologists”

15. Introduction to behavior • Some historical context… • The “comparative psychologists” • Studied a limited range of behaviors (maze learning, task learning, appetitive behavior, avoidance behavior, etc.)

16. Introduction to behavior • Some historical context… • The “comparative psychologists” • Studied a limited range of behaviors • In a limited number of species (lab rats, mice, pigeons, monkeys, etc.)

17. Introduction to behavior the “Skinner Box”

18. Introduction to behavior • Some historical context… • The “comparative psychologists” • Studied a limited range of behaviors • In a limited number of species • Usually in captivity (artificial, experimental environments of a variety of types)

19. Introduction to behavior • Some more historical context… • The “ethologists” (primarily European, in the 1940s and 1950s)

20. Introduction to behavior • Some more historical context… • The “ethologists” • Emphasized studies of wild animals under natural conditions (honeybees, ducks, geese, wolves, gulls, wasps…)

21. Introduction to behavior • Some more historical context… • The “ethologists” • Emphasized studies of wild animals under natural conditions • Studied a broad range of behavioral phenomena (communication, aggression, territoriality, learning, navigation, migration…)

22. Introduction to behavior • Some more historical context… • In 1973, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine went to three European ethologists

23. Introduction to behavior • Karl von Frisch…

24. Introduction to behavior • Von Frisch studied communication in honeybees…

25. Introduction to behavior • The “waggle dance” of a foraging worker tells her sisters about the food source

26. Introduction to behavior • Konrad Lorenz

27. Introduction to behavior • Lorenz studied aggression in canids (dogs, wolves)

28. Introduction to behavior • Lorenz studied aggression in canids (dogs) • and learning in birds

29. Introduction to behavior • Lorenz studied aggression in canids (dogs) • and learning in birds • Imprinting: irreversible learning that occurs early in ontogeny during a brief “critical period”

30. Introduction to behavior • Fixed Action Patterns… • stereotyped behaviors • innate • “fixed” because they are always done completely once begun

31. Introduction to behavior • Fixed Action Patterns… • stereotyped behaviors • innate • “fixed” because they are always done completely once begun • elicited by “releasers”

32. Introduction to behavior • Nikolas Tinbergen

33. Introduction to behavior • Niko Tinbergen had a lasting effect on the development of the scientific study of animal behavior • He emphasized the use of experiments…

34. Introduction to behavior • Niko Tinbergen had a lasting effect on the development of the scientific study of animal behavior • He emphasized the use of experiments… • and use of the “comparative method”

35. Introduction to behavior

36. Introduction to behavior • The comparative method takes advantage of divergent evolution and convergent evolution to assess the evolutionary effect of the environment on behavior and other phenotypes…

37. Introduction to behavior • Divergent evolution - • phylogenetically closely related species in different environments… • Convergent evolution - • phylogenetically distantly related species in similar environments…

38. Introduction to behavior • The “heritable” part of heritable variation has caused some controversy • There is plenty of data to demonstrate that expression of most behaviors of non-human animals has a genetic component • In fruit flies… • What about humans?

39. Introduction to behavior

40. Introduction to behavior Effect of environment r = 1.0 MZT MZA Effect of genetics DZT DZA r = 0.5 raised together raised apart

41. Introduction to behavior

42. Introduction to behavior

43. personality trait well being social potency achievement social closeness stress reaction aggression control absorption harm avoidance traditionalism heritability 0.48 0.59 0.39 0.40 0.53 0.44 0.44 0.50 0.55 0.45 Introduction to behavior