| Term | Definition |
|---|
| agonistic behavior | a type of behavior involving a contest of some kind that determines which competitor gains access to some resource, such as food or mates |
| altruism | behavior that reduces an individual's fitness while increasing the fitness of another individual |
| associative learning | the acquired ability to associate one stimulus with another; also called classical conditioning |
| behavior | what an animal does and how it does it |
| behavioral ecology | a heuristic approach based on the expectation that Darwinian fitness (reproductive success) is improved by optimal behavior |
| classical conditioning | a type of associative learning; the association of a normally irrelevant stimulus with a fixed beavioral response |
| congnition | the ability of an animal's nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information obtained by its sensory receptors |
| courtship | behavior patterns that lead up to copulation or gamete release |
| dominance hierarchy | a linear "pecking order" of animals, where position dictates characteristic social behaviors |
| ethology | the study of animal behavior in natural conditions |
| fixed action pattern (FCP) | a sequence of behavioral acts that is essentially unchangeable and usually carried to completion once initiated |
| foraging | behavior necessary to recognize, search for, capture, and consume food |
| habituation | a very simple type of learning that involves a loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no information |
| imprinting | a type of learned beavhior with a significant innate component, acquired during a limited critical period |
| kin selection | a phenomenon of inclusive fitness, used to explain altruistic behavior between related individuals |
| kinesis | a change in activity or turning rate in response to a stimulus |
| learning | a behavioral change resulting from experience |
| monogamous | a type of relationship in which one male mates with just one female |
| operant conditioning | 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 behavior. Also called trial-and-error learning |
| parental investment | the time and resources an individual matches one of the parental phenotypes |
| pheromone | a small, violatile chemical signal that functions in communication between animals and acts much like a hormone in influencing physiology and behavior |
| play | behavior with no apparent external goal but involves movements clsely associated with goal directed behaviors |
| polyandry | a polygamous mating system involving one female and many males |
| polygamous | a type of relationship in which an individual of one sex mates with several of the other |
| polygyny | a polygamous mating system involving one male and many females |
| promiscuous | a type of relationship in which mating occurs with no strong pair-bonds or lasting relationships |
| reciprocal altruism | altruistic behavior between unrelated individuals, whereby the current altruisitc individual benefits in the future when the current beneficiary reciprocates |
| reconcliation behavior | post- conflict behavior that renews friendly relations |
| ritual | a type of symbolic activity |
| sensitive period | a limitied phase in an individual animal's development when learning of particular behaviors can take place |
| sign stimulus | an external sensory stimulus that triggers a fixed action pattern |
| signal | a behavior that causes a change in behavior in another animal |
| social behavior | any kind of intereaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species |
| sociobiology | the study of social behavior based on evolutionary theory |
| taxis | movement toward or away from a stimulus |
| territory | an area that an individual or individuals defend and form which other members of the same species are usually excluded |
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