Unit #2-Responses to the Environment

1. Unit #2-Responses to the Environment Ch. 51: Behavioral Ecology Lab #17-Invert. Behavior Video Ch. 49: Senses & Motor Mechanisms Lab #18 Video: Ch. 48: Nervous System Lab #19: Observational Diss. of Sheep’s Brain Video: The Neural Connection Test #2: Approx. Date – Thurs. March 27th

2. Animal Behavior : Ethology Chapter 51 Pgs. 1106-1133

3. Introductory Questions #1 1) How are proximate causes different from ultimate causes of behavior 2) Name four different types of learning and provide one example of each. 3) Which type of learning is more complex than the others. Why? • How is habituation different from any other type of learning? • How do circadian rhythms effect behavior? • Name three ways in which animals communicate.

4. Video: Inside the Animal Mind (Pt. I)Text pgs: 1114-1125 I. Name three types of learning mentioned in the video II. Give an example for each of the three learning types that was presented. III. What was the most fascinating type of learning you saw? IV. Give one situation from the video that you were not aware of before watching the video. Specific Questions: -What part of the brain is responsible for generating a mental map? -Where does the Clark Nutcracker finch reside? How many nuts do they typically bury each year? How many of these nuts do they recover in the winter? -What type of learning was observed with the chimps and the banana? • Give TEN Key statements (numbered) • Give FIVE questions you have after watching the video.

5. Key Areas of Behavior (Ch . 51) • Instinct (innate) Behavior • Causes of Behavior: Proximate & Ultimate • Learning: (5) types • Animal Cognition • Sociobiology & Communication

6. Defining Behavior-Ethology • Involves how organisms react (respond) and cope to the stimuli from the environment. Everything an animal does. Two types of Explanations: Proximate Causes: -focuses on the “how” a behavior is formed -triggered by environmental stimuli -involves genetic, physiological, & anatomical mechanisms. Ultimate causes: -focuses on “why” a behavior occurs. -evolutionary significance & evolutionary explanations -Long term purpose for the behavior Modifications of behavior occur through learning • There are five different types of Learning

7. Example of Proximate & Ultimate Questions about Behavior • See pg. 1107 – read the example of the red-crowned crane. • What is the Proximate Question? How does day length influence the breeding of the red-crowned cranes? • What is a reasonable hypothesis? Breeding is most productive during the spring and early summer. • What would be an Ultimate Question you could address about this behavior? Why did natural selection favor this behavior and not a different one? • What would be a reasonable hypothesis? Fitness is improved for a particular reason

8. Evolutionary link to Behavior • Animals are expected to behave in ways to maximize their fitness (optimum behavior) • What is the genetic influence? • Ex. Lovebirds a repertoire of song types • Why has natural selection favored multisong behavior? • Poss hypothesis: A repertoire of songs makes older, more experienced males more attractive to females. • Testable predictions: males learn more songs as they get older so: • The repertoire of songs is an indicator of age • Females prefer to mate with males having large repertoire of songs **actual outcome: some songbirds show their correlation while others don’t.

9. Introductory Questions #1 1) How are proximate causes different from ultimate causes of behavior 2) Name four different types of learning and provide one example of each. 3) Which type of learning is more complex than the others. Why? • How is habituation different from any other type of learning? • How do circadian rhythms effect behavior? • Name three ways in which animals communicate.

10. Introductory Questions #1 1) How are proximate causes different from ultimate causes of behavior 2) Name four different types of learning and provide one example of each. 3) Which type of learning is more complex than the others. Why? • How is habituation different from any other type of learning? • How do circadian rhythms effect behavior? • Name three ways in which animals communicate.

11. Instinct (innate) Behavior (pg. 1110) • Controlled by strong genetic influences • Inborn • Animals don’t have to witness the behavior • Unlearned • Triggered by the environment (sign stimulus or a releaser) • Inherited neurological circuitry that directs behavior • Examples: • Kinesis & Taxis-change in activity in response to stimuli • Migration • Signals & Communication (pheromones) • Fixed Action patterns (FAP) observed in the Graylag goose & egg rolling & the three-spined stickle back fish

12. Egg Rolling w/Graylag Goose Ex. of Fixed Action Pattern: action is carried out to completion

13. Kinesis vs. Taxis • Kinesis: simple change in activity or turning rate in response to a stimulus. • Ex. Sow bug response to humidity & activity level • Taxis: is more automatic and focused on the orientation of the movement either toward “+” or away “-” a stimulus. • Ex. Rheotaxis (current in a stream w/trout & salmon) Gravitropism Phototropism

14. Habituation (pg. 1100) • Simple form of learning • Animals learn not to respond to a stimulus • Loss of responsiveness • The response gets ignored despite the stimulus • Possible decreases wasting time *Ex. Hydra stops contracting if disturbed too often by water currents

15. Imprinting(pg. 1098) • Early recognition of the same group • Acquired during a limited critical “sensitive” period • Occurs right after birth • Forms from the parent-offspring bond • Small window of time where the offspring react to some animal or object. • Commonly seen with birds • Ex. Konrad Lorenz & duck hatchlings • Human infants: • Grasping -smiling w/parent • cheek & feeding -Babinski reflex

16. Classical Conditioning(pg. 1116) • Associative learning between normal body condition and a new stimulus • Pavlov: (dog salivation with a ringing bell) • Can opener w/dogs and cats

17. Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

18. Operant Conditioning (pg. 1099) • Instrumental conditioning • Trial & Error **The animal must do something to gain a reward (food) • Use positive & negative reinforcement • Skinner Expts w/Rats (lever & Food)

19. Insight Learning (pg. 1099-1100) • Most complex type of learning (video) • Animal solves a problem • Requires past experiences • Need to make associations with objects and what can be “done” with them **Chimps & the hanging banana

20. Insight & Associative Learning

21. Animal Cognition • Perceive, store, process and use information • Ties behavior to the nervous system • Spatial learning & mental maps play a role • Consciousness: Observed in animals? • Very difficult to study

22. Introductory Questions #1 1) How are proximate causes different from ultimate causes of behavior 2) Name four different types of learning and provide one example of each. 3) Which type of learning is more complex than the others. Why? • How is habituation different from any other type of learning? • How do circadian rhythms effect behavior? • Name three ways in which animals communicate.

23. Introductory Questions #2 (Ch. 49) • Name five different types of specialized neurons used to receive external stimuli. What is sensed by a nocioreceptor? What is substance P? What substance can be used to block the release of subsatnce P? (See pg. 1048-1049) • What are the five basic senses in humans? Match one of these five with each structure listed below: -olfactory -statoliths -pacinain corpuscle -oval window -rods & cones -taste buds -lateral line system -rhodopsin -saccule & utricle (otoliths) -incus & stapes -sclera, cornea, retina -vitreous humor -tectorial, basilar, tympanic membranes

24. Five Types Learning • Changes in behavior that caused by an experience “a-ha experience” • General types of learning: • Habituation (pg. 1115) • Imprinting (learning & innate) (pg. 1108) • Associative (pg. 1116) • Operant conditioning (trial & error learning) pg. 1117 • Classical conditioning (pg. 1116) • Insight Learning (pg. 1116) • Spatial learning & cognitive (mental) maps (pg. 1115)

25. Tinbergen’s Sand Wasp Experiment Nest finding behavior of wasps responding to the arrangement of the cones rather than the cones themselves: Spatial Learning Pg. 1115

26. Foraging (pg. 1119) • Behavior associated with recognizing, searching, capturing, and consuming food. • Food habits are part of the animals niche • Can be shaped by competition • It is a compromise between benefits and costs (energetically) • Natural selection dictates: minimizing costs & Max. benefits • What are some of the Costs and Benefits of Foraging? • Optimal foraging weighs the benefits and costs . Do animals weight the trade off? See info about the Bluegill fish and Daphnia. (pg. 1122-1123) When the prey density is high what does the blue gill concentrate on? Did they become more or less selective?

27. Effects of the Environment on Foraging Behavior What did Susan Riechert discover about the Agelenopsis aperta spiders in regards to their attack times while inhabiting a riparian forest vs. arid habitats? (pgs 1119-1120)

28. Other Key Experiments/Observations to Know • Foraging & Prey Selection Text pg. • Funnel web Spider (arid vs. riparian attack times) 1119 • Bluegill sun fish (prey selection w/size & distance) 1123 • Crows dropping shells (shell drop height: 5.23m) 1122 • Mule deer (avoids predators-forest edges) 1123 • Spatial Learning (mental maps): • Tinbergen’s Wasps (landmarks) 1115 • Zebrafish (genetic link to foraging behavior) 1117 • Clark’s Nutcracker finches video • Elephants in the desert video • London Cab Driver video

29. Social Behaviors • Agonistic: aggressive behavior usually resulting from competition of resources & mates (pg. 1127) • Dominance heirarchy: “pecking order” • largest male leader in the group • Territorality: protection of its own area • Defending the area from invaders • Altruistic: unselfish behavior that benefits another in the same group at the expense of that individual. (pg. 1130) • Inclusive fitness: caring for others offspring (pg. 1129) • Courtship & Sexual Selection (pg. 1129-1131) • Communication: visual, auditory, electrical, chemical

30. Communication • Necessary for social behavior • Animals can use the following methods: • Auditory • Visual • Tactile • Chemical (pheromones) • Electrical

31. Communication Observed with Bees • Observed by Karl Frisch (1940’s) • Scouts Signal to others that food is nearby and relative location • Round Dance: Simply signals to others that food is nearby (no direction or distance)-used for short distances from the hive and excites the bees to fly in all directions (approx. 50 m) • Waggle Dance: Used for longer distances and performs a figure eight path. This path communicates both the distance and direction using the sun, the hive, and the food source as reference points.

32. Round Dance & Waggle Dance

33. Pheromones • Very specific (species) • Triggers hormonal activity • Communicates: danger, attraction to others • In vertebrates pheromones can effect sexual cycles and reproductive behavior, choice in mate. • Known to synchronize menstrual cycles • Used in perfumes and fragrances

34. Final Note: • All behavior is based on responding to the environment (external stimuli) and is dependent on receiving/responding using specialized cells called sensory neurons • Next topic: Exploring the senses CH. 49

35. Key Terms & People • Innate vs. Learned Behavior • Proximate vs. Ultimate causes • FAP (fixed action patterns) - graylag goose egg rolling • Tinbergen’s wasp Experiment • Habituation • Imprinting • Positive & Negative reinforcement • Classical conditioning (Pavlov experiment) • Operant conditioning • Insight learning (problem solving w/chimps) • Circadian Rhythms • Migration • Communication & Pheromones • Sexual Selection & Dominance heirarchy • Round dance & Waggle dance (honey bees)

36. Introductory Questions #2 (Ch. 49) • Name five different types of specialized neurons used to receive external stimuli. What is sensed by a nocioreceptor? What is substance P? What substance can be used to block the release of subsatnce P? (See pg. 1048-1049) • What are the five basic senses in humans? Match one of these five with each structure listed below: -olfactory -statoliths -pacinain corpuscle -oval window -rods & cones -taste buds -lateral line system -rhodopsin -saccule & utricle (otoliths) -incus & stapes -sclera, cornea, retina -vitreous humor -tectorial, basilar, tympanic membranes