Approaches to the Study of Behavior

1. Approaches to the Study of Behavior • __________can be defined as the way an organism responds to stimuli in its environment. • Is behavior learned or genetic? • _______________

2. Learning Influences Behavior • Comparative psychologists focus on learning as the major element that shapes behavior. • __________________ • Animal is not required to form association between a stimulus and a response. • examples • ___________- decrease in response to a repeated stimulus with no positive or negative consequences • ____________- increased responsiveness to a stimulus

3. Learning • Associative learning • Association between two stimuli or between a stimulus and a response. • _______________conditioning- Paired presentation of two different stimuli creates an association between the stimuli (Pavlovian conditioning). • ______________conditioning- Animal learns to associate its behavioral response with a r______________________________ • trial and error Skinner Box- mice learn to push a lever to release food. (They will push a lever to get cocaine and ignore food, sex, and play, until they die.)

4. The Development of Behavior • Parent-offspring interactions • _______________- social attachments to other individuals that will influence behavior later in life (Konrad Lorenz) • ____________or _______________

5. Orientation and Migration • ___________- movement toward or away from a stimulus • positive (toward) and negative (away) • ___________- increase in general activity level due to increased stimulus intensity • ___________- long-range, two-way movements • monarch butterflies

6. Orientation and Migration • Navigation • _____________- ability to set or adjust a bearing and follow it • ______________- ability to follow a bearing • Inexperienced starlings appear to migrate by orientation, while older birds use true navigation. • magnetic field • celestial clues

7. Courtship • Pheromones and acoustic signals • Pheromones are chemical messengers used for communication between individuals, and often serve as sex attractants • Silk moths are the most famous example • In humans egg and sperm—they are from two individuals, right?. • Also human behavior is affected by pheromones. • Many insects, amphibians, and birds produce species-specific acoustic signals to attract mates.

8. Communication in Social Groups • Communicated information: • alarm calls • alarm pheromones • trail pheromones • dance language • Waggle dance of European honeybee relays direction and distance of a located food source. • primate vocalizations

9. Exchange of information can affect a change in behavior. • How can one organism influence the behavior of another? • Give one example for each: • Fight of flight response • Predator warning alarm • Protection of young • Plant response to herbivore • Avoidance response

10. Parental Investment and Mate Choice • Mate choice occurs when individuals do not mate at random, but appear to make decisions on mates base on quality. • common in females, usually they have a larger reproductive investment • Parental investment refers to contributions each sex makes in producing and rearing offspring. • usually higher in females • In mormon crickets, the male invests in high energy sperm, and the males are more selective.

11. Mating Systems • Number of mates • monogamy - one male and one female • polygyny - one male and many females • polyandry - one female and several males • Needs of offspring • __________- require extensive, prolonged care (ex. humans) • ___________- require little parental care

12. Factors Favoring Altruism and Group Learning • __________ - performance of an action that benefits another individual at a cost to the actor (nest helpers) • Natural selection would seem to argue against altruism. • Such acts may not be truly altruistic, and may be benefiting the actor. • ____________________________________________________________

13. Factors Favoring Altruism and Group Learning • Reciprocity - Individuals may form partnerships in which mutual exchanges of altruistic acts occur. Ex: Vampire bats will share blood with those who have shared with them in the past. • Kin selection - By directing aid toward close genetic relatives, an altruist may increase reproductive success of its relatives enough to compensate for the reduction in its own fitness. • The more closely related the individuals, the more likely the potential genetic gain.

14. Altruism • __________________Altruistic acts (acts that benefit another member of the same species) are favored when ____________ • r = relatedness –proportion of shared alleles • b = benefit • c = cost

15. Cooperative behavior increases fitness of individual and population survival • ________________________________ • _______________________________ • _________________________________ • _________________________________

16. Examples of Alarm Signal • _________________________ • sound alarm calls when spot predators • Females are more likely to call than males because colony is mostly her relatives. • _____________: She is “protecting” her genes when she protects her relatives.

17. Group Living - Evolution of Social Systems • Society - group of organisms of the same species organized in a cooperative manner • Insects • All ants, some bees, some wasps, and all termites are social • social colonies are composed of different castes of workers that differ in size and morphology and have different tasks to perform.

18. Natural Selection and Behavior3.E.1 c • Natural selection favors innate and learned behaviors that increase survival and reproductive fitness • Examples: • ________________________________ • ________________________________ • ________________________________ • ________________________________ • ________________________________

19. Essential Knowledge 3.E.1- b • Animals use visual, audible, tactile, electrical and chemical signals to indicate dominance, find food, establish territory and ensure reproductive success • _________________________________ • _________________________________ • _________________________________ • _________________________________ • _________________________________ • _________________________________

20. Response to EnvironmentExamples • • ______________ and ___________in plants • • ____________and __________in animals • • _______and _________in animals • • ____________in bacteria, sexual reproduction in fungi • • _____________and _________activity: ____________rhythms • • _______________Shivering and sweating in humans