Chapter 51 Behavioral Biology

Front 1

behavior

Back 1

what an animal does and how it does it

Front 2

ethology

Back 2

the study of how animals behave in their natural environment

Front 3

fixed-action pattern (FAP)

Back 3

a highly stereotyped sequence of behaviors that, once begun, is usually carried through to completion; triggered by a sign stimulus

Front 4

sign stimulus

Back 4

some external stimulus that is often a limited subset of available sensory information

Front 5

behavioral ecology

Back 5

a heuristic approach based on expectation that Darwinian fitness (reproductive succcess) is improved by optimal behavior

Front 6

foraging

Back 6

behavior necessary to recognize, search for, capture, and consume food

Front 7

optimal foraging theory

Back 7

the basis for analyzing behavior as a compromise of feeding costs versus feeding benefits

Front 8

learning

Back 8

the modification of behavior as a reslut of experience and can affect even innate behaviors

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maturation

Back 9

improved perfomance of innate behaviors resulting from neuromuscular development

Front 10

habituation

Back 10

the loss of sensitivity to unimportant stimuli or to stimuli not associated with appropriate feedback

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imprinting

Back 11

learning that occurs during a specific time period and is generally irreversible

Front 12

sensitive period

Back 12

a limited phase in an individual animal's development when learning of particular behaviors can take place

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associative learning

Back 13

the acquired ability to associate one stimulus with another; also called classical conditioning

Front 14

operant conditioning

Back 14

a type of associative learning in which an animal learns to associate one of its own behaviors with a reward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavaior. also called trial-and-eroor learning

Front 15

play

Back 15

behavior with no apparent external goal but involves movements closely associated with goal-directed behaviors

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cognition

Back 16

the ability of an animal's nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information obtained by its sensory receptors

Front 17

cognitive ethology

Back 17

the scientific study of cognition; the sudy of the connection between data processing by nervous systems and animal behavior

Front 18

kinesis

Back 18

a change in activity or turning rate in response to a stimulus

Front 19

taxis

Back 19

movement toward or away from a stimulus

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landmark

Back 20

a point of reference for orientation during navigation

Front 21

cognitive map

Back 21

a representation within the nervous system of spatial relations amoung objects in an animal's environment

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migrations

Back 22

long-distance, regular movements, often invollving a round trip each year

Front 23

social behavior

Back 23

any kind of interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species

Front 24

sociobiology

Back 24

the study of social behavior based on evolutionary theory

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agonistic behavior

Back 25

a type of behavior involving a contest of some kind that determines which competitor gains access to some resource, such as food or mates

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ritual

Back 26

a type of symbolic activity

Front 27

reconciliation behavior

Back 27

post-conflict behavior that renews friendly relations

Front 28

dominace hierarchy

Back 28

a linear "pecking order" of animals, where position dictates characteristic social behaviors

Front 29

territory

Back 29

an area that an individual or individuals defend and from which other membersw of the same species are usually excluded

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parental investment

Back 30

the time and resources an indivudual must spend to produce and nurture offspring

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promiscuous

Back 31

a type of relationship in which mating occurs with no strong pair-bonds or lasting reltionships

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monogamous

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a type of relationship in which one male mates wih just one female

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polygamous

Back 33

a type of relationship in which an individual of one sex mates with several of the other

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polygyny

Back 34

a polygamous mating system involving one male and many females

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polyandry

Back 35

a polygamous mating system involving one female and many males

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signal

Back 36

a behavior that causes a change in behavior in another animal

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communication

Back 37

the transmission of, reception of, and response to signals

Front 38

pheromones

Back 38

a small, volatile chemical signal that function in communication between animals and acts much like a hormone in influencing physiology and behavior

Front 39

altruism

Back 39

behavior that reduces an individual's fitness while increasing the fitness of another individual

Front 40

inclusive fitness

Back 40

the total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing its own offspring and by providing aid that enables other cose relatives to increase the production of their offspring

Front 41

Hamilton's rule

Back 41

the principle that for natural selection to favor an altruistic act, the benefit to the recipient, devalued by the coefficient of relatedness, must exceed the cost to the alturist

Front 42

coefficient of relatedness

Back 42

the probability that a particular gene present in one individual will also be inherited from a common parent or ancestor in a second individual

Front 43

Kin selection

Back 43

a phenomenon of inclusive fitness, used to explain altruistic behavior between related individuals

Front 44

reciprocal altruism

Back 44

altruistic behavior between unrelated individuals, whereby the current altruistic individual venefits in the futre when the current beneficiary reciprocates