Plant And Animals Behaviours

Front 1

A tropism?

Back 1

A directional growth response in which the direction of the response is determined by the direction of the external stimulus.

Front 2

Phototropism?

Back 2

Shoots grow towards light, which enables them to photosynthesise.

Front 3

Geotropism?

Back 3

Roots grow towards the pull of gravity. This anchors them in the soil and helps them to take up water, which is needed for support as a raw material for photosynthesis and to help cool the plant.

Front 4

Chemotropism?

Back 4

On a flower, pollen tubes grow down the style, attracted by chemicals, towards the ovary where fertilisation can take place.

Front 5

Thigmotropism?

Back 5

Shoots of climbing plants, such a ivy, wind around other plants or solid structured and gain support.

Front 6

How can hormones move around plants?

Back 6

Active transport.
Diffusion.
Mass flow in the phloem sap or in xylem vessels.

Front 7

Habituation?

Back 7

Animals learn to ignore certain stimuli because they realise after repeated exposure that they offer no positive or negative effects, allowing animals to not waste energy making escape responses to non dangerous stimuli.

Front 8

Example of habituation?

Back 8

Birds learning to ignore scarecrows as they pose no threat.

Front 9

Reflex action?

Back 9

Fast, stereotyped response, the most commonly- known example of which is the escape reflex common to many invertebrates, such as fish and shrimp who use the reflex to escape predation.

Front 10

Taxis and example?

Back 10

Behaviours which are not immediate like reflexes, but are more gradual. Taxes are directional movement responses, and can be positive or negative. Positive chemotaxis can be when ants response in their antennae to move towards the stimulus.

Front 11

Kinesis and example?

Back 11

Non-directional movement responses, whereby a particular direction is not indicated, but the response of the organism is to change direction. This response involves an increase in the rate of movement when an organism is under favourable conditions. Woodlice who prefer damp and dark conditions to avoid predation, and so when in bright light or in dry areas, they will move quickly and turn less. When in favourable conditions they will move slowly and turn more.

Front 12

Fixed action potential?

Back 12

This is an innate characteristic where behaviours always follow the same set of rules- but this is a set of responses to a non-immediate stimulus. A good example Is a waggle dance in worker honey bees, whereby a bee can indicate the direction and distance to a food source to other bees based on the angle and duration of its waggle.

Front 13

Classical conditioning?

Back 13

Building an association between one stimuli and another so that the conditional stimulus promotes the same response as another, this can be positive or negative.
Pavlov's dogs learning to salivate at the sound of a bell.

Front 14

Operant conditioning?

Back 14

Learning behaviours through reinforcement and punishment, whereby actions are either rewarded or punished so that animals learn whether or not they should perform those behaviours.
The rats in Skinners boxes learning to press on a lever to obtain food.

Front 15

Imprinting?

Back 15

New-born animals becoming associated with other organisms, usually the parent where the connection is built over the sensitive period. Lorenz' goslings which followed him around and learned to avoid danger from following him.

Front 16

Insight learning?

Back 16

Regarded as the highest form of learning, this involved solving problems with reasoning and thought, and once a problem is solved or an obstacle overcome, the solution is learned and repeated in the future.
Kohlers work with chimpanzees shows that when presented with bananas hung from the ceiling out of reach, the chimps were able to stack some boxes themselves and climb on top of them.

Front 17

Latent learning?

Back 17

Animals learn information about their surroundings.