Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
40 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What is behavior?
|
The way an animal responds to stimuli in its environment.
|
|
What is proximate causation? Ultimate causation?
|
The way a behavior happens (nerve impulses/hormones) [how]. The adaptive value of a behavior [why].
|
|
Describe the mechanism of innate behavior.
|
A sign stimulus, or key stimulus, triggers an innate releasing mechanism in the nervous system that causes the execution of a motor program called the fixed action pattern.
|
|
What is the concept of supernormal stimuli?
|
When presented with two key stimuli, animals tend to react to the larger key stimuli.
|
|
Is behavior determined by genetics, experience, or both?
|
Both.
|
|
What is learning?
|
The altering of behavior based on previous experiences.
|
|
What is nonassociative learning? What is habituation?
|
Learning that doesn't require associating between two stimuli or a stimulus and a response. Decreased response to a repeating stimulus that doesn't have positive or negative consequences.
|
|
What is associative learning? What is the term for the modification of behavior through associative learning?
|
Learning that requires association between two stimuli or a stimulus and a response. Conditioning.
|
|
What are the two types of conditioning?
|
Classical/Pavlonian conditioning (associating two stimuli) and Operant conditioning (associating stimulus with reward or punishment).
|
|
What is imprinting? When are the chances of imprinting success highest?
|
The development of social attachments or preferences that influence behavior later in life. A sensitive phase or critical period.
|
|
What is sexual imprinting? What is cross-fostering?
|
The process of an individual directing its sexual behavior to members of its species. Placing an individual of one species into the care of a family of another species. This causes sexual imprinting toward the family species and not the individual's species.
|
|
What is a genetic template?
|
An instinctive program that helps an animal to learn something fully.
|
|
What is cognitive behavior?
|
The processing and resonding to information in a way that suggests thinking.
|
|
In migratory behavior, what is taxis? Kineses? Migrations?
|
Movement toward or away from a stimulus. Increase or decrease in activity in response to stimulus intensity. Long-range, two-way movements.
|
|
What is the difference between orientation and navigation?
|
Orientation is the ability to follow a bearing and navigation is the ability to set a bearing and then follow it.
|
|
Courtship sometimes occurs by use of a _______-________ ______ in which one individual's behavior triggers a behavior of another.
|
Stimulus-response Chain.
|
|
What chemicals are used as sex attractants between animals?
|
Pheromones.
|
|
Many insects, amphibians, and birds produce species specific ______ ________ to attract mates.
|
Acoustic Signals.
|
|
What is the level of specificity?
|
The amount of information that the animal gives about itself in its signals.
|
|
How do scout honeybees communicate where food is to the rest of the gathers at the hive?
|
The waggle dance.
|
|
What is behavioral ecology? What is survival value/adaptive significance?
|
The study of how natural selection shapes behavior. How a behavior helps an animal stay alive or reproduce (fitness).
|
|
What does optimal foraging theory state? What are its two assumptions?
|
Natural selection favors animals that maximize their feeding efficiency. 1. Increased energy increases reproductive success, 2. Optimal foraging resulted from natural selection.
|
|
What is territoriality? What is a home range?
|
The behavior in which individuals maintain exclusive use of an area containing a limiting resource. The area an individual often moves over during daily activity (can overlap with others).
|
|
What is reproductive strategy?
|
The set of behaviors that have evolved to maximize chances of reproductive success.
|
|
Is it males or females who more commonly make the mate choice? Why is this?
|
Females. Females tend to have higher parental investment.
|
|
What is sexual selection? What are the two types? What are the structures involved in sexual selection called?
|
Competition for mating opportunities. Intrasexual (same sex competition) and Intersexual (other sex charming). Secondary sexual characteristics.
|
|
What is sexual dimorphism? What is sperm competition?
|
Differences between males and females as a result of intrasexual selection (i.e. male deer antlers). Competition between sperm of two individuals to fertilize the egg.
|
|
Sometimes individuals choose a mate with a detrimental trait. What is a hypothesis concerning the reason for this? Explain it.
|
The handicap hypothesis. If an organism can survive with such a handicap, it must have some quality genes.
|
|
What is sensory exploitation?
|
The evolution of one of the sexes to accomodate for the sensory systems of the opposite sex (i.e. color or sound preferences).
|
|
What are the three mating systems?
|
Monogamy (one male, one female), Polygyny (one male, multiple females), Polyandry (multiple males, one female).
|
|
What does it mean for offspring to be altricial? Precocial?
|
They require extensive parental care. They require little parental care.
|
|
What are extra-pair copulations?
|
The mating of a female with a male other than her primary mate.
|
|
Is there always only one type of male and one type of reproductive strategy?
|
No. Some animals have different male forms, some of which are territorial and mate directly, and others that sneak in and act as extra-pair copulators.
|
|
What is altruism? Why is it puzzling?
|
The performance of an action that benefits another individual at a cost to the actor. It doesn't seem that natural selection would support altruism.
|
|
What is group selection?
|
A rare form of natural selection that acts on a group on individuals.
|
|
What is reciprocal altruism?
|
A partnership between individuals in which partners perform altruistic acts for other participants.
|
|
What is kin selection?
|
Selection that favors altruism directed toward relatives.
|
|
What is Hamiltons' Rule?
|
Altruistic acts are favorable when rb>c. b=benefits. c=costs. r=coefficient of relatedness.
|
|
Describe an eusocial system.
|
Usually, males are haploid, females are diploid (haplodiploidy). Most females are sterile and assist the reproductive female (queen) in caring for offspring.
|
|
What is a society? Insect societies may contain different ______, which differ in size, morphology, and jobs.
|
A group of individuals of the same species that are organized in a cooperative manner. Castes.
|