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168 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

Homologous behavior

A shared behavior between different species due to common ancestry

Convergent behavior

When a similar behavior has evolved independently in different taxa


Ex. black headed gulls and CA ground squirrels both exhibit mobbing behavior against predators but are distantly related, so it is convergent beh

Tinbergen's 4 questions for animal behavior

1.) What is the mechanism for behaviors


2.)What is the ontogeny of a behavior; how does it develop?


3.)What is the adaptive function of a behavior?


4.)Where and when did a behavior evolve and how does it differ between taxa?

Why does the loggerhead shrike exhibit egg ejecting behavior when its' range does not and has never overlapped with a nest parasite?

Phylogeny. They are closely related to several bird species that regularly eject cuckoo intrusions. This behavior is an evolutionary "left-over".


There must not be a significant cost to this behavior, otherwise it would have been selected against. Either that or this behavior is also beneficial. Possibly it increases the survival of the remaining eggs/offspring.

Preexisting bias hypothesis

When psychological predispositions or biases resulting from how the brain is wired have a profound effect on evolution of elaborate behavioral traits


Konrad Lorenz

one of the first ethologists, developed the behavioral concepts of critical period, imprinting and the psycho-hydraulic model of behavioral motivation

Karl von Frisch

Early ethologist that studied the sensory perception of honey bees. He was the first to interpret the meaning of the waggle dance in bees

Proximate cause of behavior

This is the trigger for a behavior; typically a sensory stimulus.


Mechanism


Ontogeny

Ultimate cause of a behavior

Why that behavior occurs, evolutionarily. Evolution shapes the behavior over time.


Adaptive function


Phylogeny

Just so story

When an observer makes a statement about the function and evolution of the behavior without having tested hypotheses

Neurons

Cells that carry action potentials from one location to another in the body

Acetylcholine

Neurotransmitter that links axons with muscles

Additive genetic variation

measures interactions among genes, such as genetic dominance

Artificial selection

The selection of specific traits when breeding two animals or plants together by humans

Quantitve trait locus analysis

Used for mapping the general location on a chromosome for genes that are correlated with a certain phenotype and for determining the number of genes that have major influences on a certain phenotype

Motivation or drive theory

Explanation for how an animal decides to engage in a particular activity at any given time; helps explain this internal decision making process

Redirected behavior

When an animal can't complete the desired task, sometimes due to societal rules, and directs the energy onto a third party or inanimate object

What are hypotheses for why animals play?

-It helps to develop motor skills or coordination


-It stimulates brain development


-It allows for learning of social skills


-It establishes social bonds and hierarchical societal positions

Time budget

When you observe an animal and record the amount of time the animal spends on different activities during the day

Psycho-hydraulic model of motivation

Model in which action specific energy drips into a reservoir that has a valve which is an innate releasing mechanism with a string and pulley attached to a weight which represents the stimulus. When the stimulus is strong enough, it opens the valve and releases energy into a second reservoir for fixed action patterns. This reservoir has different openings at different heights to represent the differing degrees of expression depending on how much energy fills it.

Vacuum activity

When an animal expresses a behavior with, seemingly, no stimulus.

Displacement behavior

The allocation of energy into another task when the desired action cannot be completed

Self-directed behavior

Redirection of energy for a task that could not be completed to oneself

Habituation

The lack of a response to a stimulus that has been given repeatedly.

Sensitization

When an animal becomes very sensitive to a smaller stimulus, typically after one large stimulus.

Learning

The alteration of a behavior due to an experience.

How are short-term memories stored?

As a response to a weak stimulus. It phosphorylates sodium ion channels at a synapse and increases the amount of neurotransmitter that binds.

How are long-term memories stored?

Due to stronger and longer-lasting stimuli; cAMP is released which activates protein kinase which phosphorylates proteins that signal the cell nuclus to order the synthesis of more proteins. This can change the shape and function of the synapse to increase efficiency and the number of transmitters that bind.

Imprinting

Learning of critical information at a young age during a small period (critical window) of time. Often irreversible.


Filial imprinting


Kin imprinting


Sexual imprinting

Filial imprinting

Learning parents or caretakers and then the young will exhibit a following response

Kin imprinting

Identifying siblings and the level of relatedness between them; helps them know who to help and who to avoid mating with

Sexual imprinting

Identification of who to mate with and what adults of the same species should look like

Associative learning (conditioning)

Learning to associate a stimulus with some sort of reward or punishment


Classical and operant

Classical conditioning

Associating one stimulus with another irrelevant stimulus


Pavlov's dog

Operant conditioning

Learning that an action is associated with a consequence (usually reward)

Taste aversion lerning

When an animal ingests a poisonous food, becomes ill, and avoids the food.

Trial and error learning

When an animal tries a solution to a problem, and if incorrect, will continue trying other solutions until it tries the correct one.


Mazes

Social learning

When one animal observes another completing an action and learns from it

Isolation experiments

When an animal is removed from the environment and it's behavior is monitored. Used to determine if the behavior is due to environment or genetics

Common gardening

When two species with different behaviors are put in the same environment to determine if the environment elicits a behavior

Cross-fostering

An animal is raised by parents of another species and it's behavior is observed to determine if it is due to genetics or environment

Epigenetics

Alteration of genes by the environment, which can be inherited by offspring. Environment can cause methylation of DNA which will cause the gene to stop being expressed as a behavior

Polygyny

Males attempt to mate with more than one female

Sequential Polygyny

When a male pairs with one female at a time but many females over a season


More likely when season is prolonged- tropical areas

Defense Polygyny

When a male secures matings by defense


-Directly defend groups of females or defend resources that females need


-females tolerate when resources are poorly distributed and the males enforce it

Lekking

Males defend a position in a group display site (lek).

Why do males form a lek?

Hotspot hypothesis- there is one spot where females travel anyways, so males wait for females to pass


Hotshot hypothesis- there is one dominant male and the other males hang around because females will come to him

Why do females go to a lek?

-Its on the way, so they don't have to waste time looking for males


-It provides ease of comparison- search costs are low


- The position of males is uncheatable; can tell hierarchy by arrangement of males (dom male in center)

Polyandry

Females mate with multiple males


-When females aren't limited by resources


-males typically provide extensive care


-can result in sex role reversal in extreme cases

Promiscuity

When animals are indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners


-often in species with brief breeding opportunities


Scramble competition or explosive breeding

Alternative mating strategies

Sneakers, satellites, female mimics, etc

Sneaky males

Hide near a male territory and once females lay eggs, sneak sneaks out and does a drive by fertilization

Female mimics

Larger than sneaky males, mimics a female so the male allows them on territory with himself and other female and mimic adds sperm to eggs

Free-running behavior

daily behavioral rhythm that continue in absence of a zeitgeber

Components of a reflex loop

FILL IN

Umwelt

Species-specific sensory environment

Broad-sense

Heritability measurement that includes additive and non-additive genes

Larder hoarder

hide their entire food supply in one area

Scatter hoarder

Hide their food supply in many places

Positive punishment

Presentation of a negative consequence after an undesired behavior is exhibited

Public information

signals that can be perceived by animals other than the intended receiver

Dissipation

Loss of intensity of sound as it travels over a distance

Marginal value theorem

As the distance between patches of food increases, animals are more likely to spend more time in each patch

Single gene mutation

Genetic change in just one gene

Key concepts of heritability

-Population level measure


-NOT a measure of degree of genetic control of behavioral trait


-Can differ among environments


-Behavior must vary among individuals in the population for it to have measurable heritability


-Strong selection on beh trait reduces heritability of that trait because it reduces variation

Vp = Vg + Ve

Variation of a phenotype = sum of variation due to genetic effects and variation due to environmental effects

Genetic Variation

A measure of the variation in phenotype that is due to all variation in genotype.


Additive and nonadditive

Additive genetic variation

Proportion of genetic variation due to simple additive effects among genes; due to allelic differences because they work together


Reduced in strong selection- because it changes allele frequencies

Nonadditive genetic variation

Results from interactions between alleles and from gene dominance at the same locus

Epistasis

When genes interact in ways that change the action of the genes from different loci

Broad-sense heritability

Proportion of phenotypic variation that is explained by genetic variation


Used to measure magnitude of genetic influences on a trait

Narrow-sense heritability

Proportion of phenotypic variation that is explained by additive genetic variation


Used to predict how animals will respond to artificial or natural selection

How can additive variation persist in strong selection?

1.) Balancing selection- 2 extreme pheno favored and maintained


2.) Epistasis- an allele is not fixated bc while it is favored it also is deleterious to other genes


3.) Correlated characteristic- pheno expressed in both sexes but only important in one (males) bc selection max trait in females and the deleterious effect outweighs selection


4.) Handicap principle- prod. of costly pheno, so if can survive with it, must have good genes

Questions addressed with QTL

-How many genes influence expression of a quantitative trait?


-What is the level of influence of ea gene on the trait?


-Where are the genes located on the chromosomes?


-What is the function of ea gene?

Candidate gene

Gene identified as having a strong possibility of playing a role in regulating phenotype

Knockout

Single gene removed or stopped from transcription and see what happens to behavior without it

Interference RNA

Silences genetic info without damaging it

Microarray

Spot slides with known genes from a model organism and expose it to RNA of animal with behavior of interest and will light up if matching RNA binds

Positive Reinforcement

Addition of a treat (positive) when the desired activity is performed

Negative Reinforcement

Receiving something negative (pain) when performs undesired activity

Positive punishment

Addition of aversive stimulus following target behavior

Negative punishment

desired stimulus removed after performs undesired activity

Cache retrieval learning

Learning where a cache is stored

Central place foraging

special case of MVT where animals forage and return to a shelter or larder

Asexual reproduction

Exact copying of DNA base sequences; clonal growth-budding or parthenogenesis

Sexual reproduction

Genetic recombination of two individuals

Anisogamy

Sexual dimorphism in gamete size

Evolutionary stable strategy

A set of behavioral tactics at a stable equilibrium; once it is fixed in a population, natural selection alone is enough to prevent invasion by alternative strategies


Ex. anisogamy- sperm strategy of being mobile and egg strategy of gaining/producing resources are equally beneficial and is stable in a 50/50 pop sex ratio

Fisherian sex ratio

1:1, equilibrium sex ratio, parental expenditure is equal because each sex supplies exactly half the genes of all future generations

Non-fisherian sex ratio

Not 1:1, not at equilibrium

Frequency-dependent selection

probability of an individual being able to mate is dependent on the frequency of the opposite sex in relation to its own sex.


First described by Darwin

Game theory/Nash equilibria vs. ESS

Motivation for game theory is to predict moves of other players and maximize payoff assuming that both players know how game works.


ESS- strategies are genetically encoded and heritable, ind. have no control over strategy and aren't aware of game, payoff is fitness,


ESS must be resistant to alternative strategies that arise via mutation- nat sel should get rid of these if this is an ESS

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)

Predicts that if a behavior is adaptive, then the benefits of the behavior must outweigh the costs. Costs are usually time and energy while benefits are increased food intake, survival and reproduction


Max benefits while min costs

Currencies for cost-benefit analysis

1. Schoener's food intake


2. Mangel and Clark's time minimization hyp


3. Charnov's time btwn patches and deciding when to leave one for another (MVT)


-Inbreeding avoidance


-Max gen benefits to offspring (good genes or more variation in MHC


-Max body condition b4 mig or nesting


-Avoidance of parasites

What are some constraints animals face when making an optimal decision?

Environmental factors


Morphological or physiological characteristics


Seasonal food fluctuations


Competition


Food patchiness


Cognitive limitations


Sensory limitations


Carrying load


Nutrient constraints

What are some limitations of CBA and optimality models?

-Currency chosen by researcher may not reflect actual currency



Optimal trait value

Trait value that confers the highest fitness in a particular environment under all modes of selection.

Proximate explanation

Explanation that focuses on understanding the immediate causes of a behavior


-What is the mechanism that causes that behavior?


-How does the behavior develop?

Ultimate explanation

Explanation that requires evolutionary reasoning and analyses

Methods for studying behavior

1. Observational- observe and record behavior


2. Experimental- Manipulate variable to see how it affects behavior


3. Comparative- Examines similarities and differences btwn species to understand evolution of behavior

Control group

Group that does not experience manipulation of the independent variable and serves as a comparison for manipulated groups

Ancestral trait

Found in the common ancestor of two or more species

Derived trait

Found in an organism that was not present in the last common ancestor of a group of two or more species

Phylogeny

Hypothesized evolutionary ancestor-descendent relationships among a set of organsims

Sister species

Two species that are more closely related to one another than to any other species

Morgan's Canon

The simplest psychological process possible should be used to interpret animal behavior

Skinner box

Operant chamber to study behavioral conditioning.

Fixed action pattern

Behaviors that are invariant and unlearned. Once initiated, they are brought to completion

Releaser stimuli

Stimuli that initiates a fixed action pattern

Behavioral phenotype is a result of what?

1. It's genotype at all loci that affect behavior


2. Environment it has experienced


3. Gene-environment interactions

Instinct

Behaviors performed in same way each time, are fully expressed the first time they are exhibited, and are present even in individuals raised in isolation

Reflex

An involuntary movement in response to a stimulus


One kind of innate behavior

Wild type

typical form of an organism or gene that occurs in nature

Major gene

Individual gene that is responsible for a large fraction of phenotypic variation

Minor gene

Individual gene that contributes to a small amounts of variation in the phenotype

Quantitative trait loci (QTL)

Stretches of DNA that either contain or are linked to genes influencing a trait such as behavior

QTL mapping

Stats technique that combines genetic info with trait info to determine which regions of the genome contain the genes that influence the trait QTLs

Candidate genes

Major genes suspected of contributing to a large amount of the phenotypic variation in a specific trait

Linkage map

Genetic map of the relative positions of genetic markers on chromosomes

Knockout technique

A single gene is rendered nonfunctional and the researcher looks for changes in behavior

Broad-sense heritability

Proportion of phenotypic variation in a pop due to genetic variation


Useful for clonal species or when offspring and parents have close to identical genotypes

Additive effects

Average effect of individual alleles on the phenotype

Dominance effects

The interaction between alleles at one locus

Epistasis

Interactions between genes at different loci

Narrow-sense heritability

Proportion of phenotypic variance solely as a result of additive genetic values


More commonly reported measure



Microarray analysis

Measurement of the activity of many genes by quantifying gene products

Close-ended learners

birds that must hear a tutor sing its conspecific song shortly after hatching in order to learn the song correctly


Fixed ciritical period for learning song


Open-ended learners

Birds that can acquire new song elements throughout life

Knockdown technique

Procedure that reduces the expression of a gene

Reaction norm

Range of behaviors expressed by a single genotype in different environments

Gene-environment interaction (GEI)

If the env has a greater effect on one genotype than others

What is phenotypic variation in behavior a result of?

Vp= Vg + Ve + Vgei


Pheno var = geno var + env var + var from interaction between the two

Rover

Larval rovers have longer foraging trails than sitters in the presence of food and are more likely to leave a food patch

Sitter

Sitters have shorter foraging trails than rovers in the presence of food and are less likely to leave a food patch

Personalities

Consistent relative differences in behavior among individuals over time or across different environmental contexts

Dear enemy hypothesis

territory owners will show reduced aggressive interactions toward territorial neighbors, compared to strangers


-Mechanism is habituation to the neighbor

memory

Retention of learned experiences

Neural plasticity

Structural changes in the brain, especially in the number of synapses and the strength of chemical synapses between neurons

Dendritic spines

Small protuberances on a dendrite that typically receive synaptic inputs

Cache

Food stored in a hidden location for later retreival


Episodic memory is mechanism that allows them to remember where cache is


Typically have larger hippocampus

Episodic memory

Memory of a specific object, place, and time

Chemical alarm substances

Chemicals released from damaged epidermal cells in fish that function as an alarm cue for others

Social information

INfo obtained from others about the env

Local enhancement

Direction of an individual's focus to a particular part of the env by the presence of another

Public info

Info obtained from the activity or performance of others about the quality of an env parameter or resource

Behavioral traditions

Differences in behavior among populations, transmitted across generations through social learning

Cognition

Ability to generate and store mental representations of the physical and social env to motivate behavior or solve problems

Insight learning

Spontaneous problem solving without the benefit of trial-and-error learning

Numerical competency

Ability to recognize numerical quantities

Evolutionary stable strategy

Strategy such that, if most of the members of a population adopt it, there is no mutant strategy that would give higher reproductive fitness


Maynard Smith and Price

How do you know if a strategy is stable?

If the system in equilibrium, once disturbed, returns to the equilibrium state, it is said to be stable.


Taylor and Jonker

Hamilton's Rule

In an interaction between individuals,


C < r x B


C= cost in fitness to the actor


r= relatedness between actor and recipient


B= fitness benefit to recipient


Kin selection


To perform an altruistic act, the degree of relatedness and benefit to the recipient must be higher than the cost to the actor

Fisher's principle

If male births are less common than female birth, then a newborn male has better mating prospects and produces more offspring. Genes from the males parents for producing males spreads b/c male has more offspring and male births are more common. As approach a 1:1 ratio, advantage of males dies away. ESS, freq dep sel

Signaler

Individual that produces a signal

Signal receiver

Individual that detects a signal

Communication

Process in which a specialized signal produced by one individual affects behavior of another

Signal

Packet of energy or matter generated from a display or action of a signaler that travels to a receiver

Waggle dance

Behavior performed by honeybee scout that recruits workers to a food source

Alarm calls

Unique vocalizations produced by social animals when predator nearby

What favors evolution of honest signals?

1. fitness interests of signaler and receiver may be similar


2. Signals are accurate indicators when they cannot be faked


3. Costly to produce or maintain

Aposematic coloration

Brightly colored morphology in a species that stands out from env and is associated with noxious chemicals or poisons that make them unpalatable or dangerous

Who benefits from aposematic coloration?

Both signaler and receiver.


Receiver benefits from not eating because it will become sick.


Signaler benefits from not being eaten.

Batesian mimicry

A palatable mimic resembles an unpalatable model that predators have learned to avoid


The species would have to co-occur in an area

Aggressive mimicry

A situation in which a predator mimics a non-threatening model.

Why is intraspecific deception less common?

Intraspecific interactions are more common so they learn inaccurate signals faster


Natural selection favors receivers that can discriminate accurate from inaccurate signals.

Sexual deception hypothesis

Males will produce deceptive signals to females in order to enhance their own reproduction

Bystander (eavesdropper)

Third party individual that detects a signal transmitted between a signaler and receiver

Audience effect

occurs when the presence of bystanders influences the behavior of a signaler