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Extra Lecture

Extra Lecture. Psychology Majors Comparative Psychology. With a Major. A psychology major is excellent preparation for a wide range of entry-level positions Starting salaries Developing skills College classes Relevant work experience Extracurricular activities. Comparative Psychology.

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Extra Lecture

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  1. Extra Lecture Psychology Majors Comparative Psychology

  2. With a Major • A psychology major is excellent preparation for a wide range of entry-level positions • Starting salaries • Developing skills • College classes • Relevant work experience • Extracurricular activities

  3. Comparative Psychology • The study of the evolutionary and developmental basis of behavior. • Comparing non-human and human behavior

  4. Morgan’s Canon • In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted in terms of higher psychological processes, if it can be fairly interpreted in terms of processes which stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution and development. (Morgan 1903, p. 59) • Anthropomorphism

  5. Darwin • Natural selection acts on behavior, morphology and physiology

  6. Three Important Ethologists • Konrad Lorenz: focus on observation, ethogram • Niko Tinbergen • Observation followed by Functional Experiments • Karl Von Frisch • Honey Bee Dance

  7. Ethology • Species-typical natural behavior • Observation FIRST - Ethogram (Lorenz) • Then experiments (Tinbergen, Von Frisch)

  8. Ethological concepts • A Fixed Action Pattern (FAP) • Instinctive and invariant behavioral sequence • Produced by a neural network – “innate releasing mechanism” • Response to sign stimulus (SS)

  9. Sign Stimulus: Red Bellied Stickleback Fish (Tinbergen) • Males turn bright red during breeding season • FAP to increasing day length (SS) • Naturally aggressive towards others (FAP) • Females naturally attracted to red-bellies • Experiments: • Males will attack anything red • Females respond to red underside (not whole male)

  10. Egg out of nest (SS)IRMegg rolling (FAP) • Greylag goose egg retrieval behavior: • FAP: Rolls the egg back to the nest • SS: The appearance of an object near the nest • Inappropriate objects?

  11. Herring gull chick feeding behavior • The chick pecks the red spot on the beak, causing the adult to regurgitate • Fixed-action pattern: Pecking the red spot on the beak • Sign stimulus: Red spot swung horizontally at the end of a long, vertical object.

  12. Bee “Waggle” Dance - Von Frisch

  13. Play – Why play?? • Practice Hypothesis: perfecting survival behaviors • Playfully stalking and attacking playmates • Similar motions used to capture and kill prey • Exercise Hypothesis: way to exert energy and build strength and endurance

  14. Insight – Reasoning (Wolfgang Kohler) • The ability of animals to perform appropriate behaviors on the first attempt in situations with which they have no prior experience

  15. Social Behavior • Interactions between 2+ animals • Agonistic Behaviors • Rituals (decreases injuries)

  16. Dominance HierarchiesA linear social organization

  17. Alliances in Dolphins • Male pair bonds • During breeding season, pairs and trios get together to herd females

  18. Communication • Vervet Monkeys -Playback Studies • Alarm Calls • Eagle (take cover!) • Leopard (to trees!) • Snake (stand up!)

  19. Altruistic Behavior • A behavior that reduces an individual's personal welfare but benefits others • Nursing orphaned animals • Dolphins supporting sick or injured animals • Food sharing • Vampire bats “buddy system” • Allo-mothering

  20. Animal Cognition • We’ve already touched on: • Problem-solving • Language • Memory • Personality

  21. Tool Use - Primate • Chimps: • Sharpen sticks to use as spears • Chimps and Bonobos use sticks to collect ants (fashion sticks to fit holes) • Hammer and Anvil to crack nuts • Wooden clubs (break bee hives, experiment with fake leopard) • Gorillas and Orangutans: • Sticks to measure the depth of water

  22. Tool Use - Birds • Egyptian vultures: • Use of a rock manipulated with beak to crack an ostrich egg • Crows and Woodpecker Finches: • Use stick tools with their beaks to extract insects from logs • Striated Herons: • Use bait to catch fish

  23. Tool Use - Dolphins • Bottlenose Dolphins:Tear off pieces of sponge and wrap them around their nose to prevent abrasions while searching for food on the sea floor

  24. Tool Use - Elephants • Dig holes to drink water; rip bark from a tree, chew it into a ball, fill in hole and cover it to avoid evaporation • Elephants returned to spot for a drink • Use branches to swat flies or scratch themselves • Seen dropping large rocks onto electric fences • Cut of electricity or ruin fence

  25. Imitation – Why is this adaptive?

  26. Self-concept – Theory of Mind • Mirror self-recognition test • Bonobos, Chimps, Orangutans, gorillas, bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, elephants, European Magpies

  27. Understanding Intentions

  28. Spontaneous Pointing in Dolphins

  29. Culture • BIG topic…do animals have culture?? • Remember different types of tool use?

  30. Juvenile Imo took potatoes to water to clean them • By 1958, potato washing adopted by 14 of 15 juveniles and 2 of 11 adults • All original monkeys have died, but behavior still observed today • Sponge-feeding also transmitted observationally • Japanese macaques – Koshima Island • 1952 – fed sweet potatoes by scientists • Cut and thrown on ground (got dirty) • Monkeys would rub it off with hands

  31. Culture – Various Feeding Behaviors • Dolphins • Herding (swim around school of fish, take turns) • Mudflats • Driver (with fluke) • Human-dolphin fisher

  32. Questions?? Study Abroad to Vienna Spring 2010

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