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46 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Ethology | The systematic study of Animal Behavior |
| Theoretical | An approach to studying ethology that involves mathematical models and can predict what might happen (optimality theory) |
| Proximate | Influence on behavior that deals with a single individual w/i its lifetime. Includes HOW and/or WHAT questions. Developmental and Physiological explanations. |
| Conceptual | An approach to ethology that fuses together many unconnected ideas to advance understanding (e.g. inclusive fitness) |
| Empirical | An approach to ethology that uses the scientific method. |
| Ultimate | A long term evolutionary cause of a behavior |
| E.O. Wilson | Author of Sociobiology. Talks about the 'selfish gene' i.e. natural selection favors those genes that increase the expected relative reproductive success of their bearers. (guppy experiement) |
| Natural Selection | occurs when variants of a trait that best suit an organism to its environment, and that are heritable, increase in frequency over evolutionary time. Requires variation, fitness differences, and heritability. |
| Genetic Recombination | The process of chromosomes 'crossing over' during sexual reproduction which can create new trait variations |
| Fitness | lifetime reproductive success; number of viable offspring produced by an individual |
| Homologous trait | traits that are shared by two or more species as a result of common descent i.e. flippers/fins/hands |
| convergent evolution | Different populations or species converge on the same phenotypic characteristics as a result of similar selection pressures |
| mutation | Any change in genetic structure |
| migration | The movement of organisms over long distances (often seasonal). |
| adaptation | a trait that results in the highest fitness among a specified set of behaviors in a particular environment. Typically the result of natural selection. |
| analogous trait | traits that are similar as a result of similar selection pressures rather than common descent. i.e. wings in bats, birds, insects |
| nervous impulse | a pathway from an external stimulus to a response with a threshold to achieve |
| habituation | becoming less sensitive to stimuli over time |
| gene expression | the expression of a gene as a result of environmental or behavioral triggers |
| Geoff Hill | encourages researchers to design experiments that test both proximate and ultimate factors |
| individual learning | a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience. Does not involve learning from others. |
| sensitization | becoming more sensitive to stimuli over time |
| unconditioned stimulus | a stimulus that elicits a vigorous response in the absence of training |
| aversive stimulus | a type of stimuli that is associated with an unpleasant experience (i.e. shock, nausea) |
| phenotype | the observable characteristics of an organism. |
| conditioned response | the learned response to a conditioned stimulus |
| phenotypic plasticity | the ability of an organism to produce different phenotypes depending on environmental conditions |
| conditioned stimulus | a stimulus that initially fails to elicit a particular response, but comes to do so when it is associated with a second (unconditioned) stimulus. |
| appetitive stimulus | any stimulus that is considered positive, pleasant, or rewarding. |
| Sara shettleworth | integrates biological and psycological approaches to the study of animal learning |
| cultural transmission | the transfer of information from individual to individual through teaching or social learning- both within and between generations of animals |
| local enhancement | an individual is drawn to a particular area because it observed another individual in that location |
| imitation | the aquisition of a novel response through observation of a demonstrator making that response. |
| teaching | occurs when one individual serves as an instructor and at least one other individual acts as a student who learns from the instructor. More active and complicated role than toehr methods of learning. |
| social learning | learning via the observation of others. |
| social facilitation | the mere presence of a model, regardless of what it does, facilitates learning on the part of an observer. |
| copy | behavior that occurs when an observer repeats the actions of a demonstrator. Copier is often rewarded for whatever behavior is had copied. |
| sexual selection | a form of natural selection that, according to Darwin, involves a struggle between the individuals of one sex, generally the males, for the possession othe the other sex |
| intersexual selection | a form of sexual selection in which individuals of one sex choose which individuals of the toher sex to take as mates. |
| mate-choice copying | the act of copying the mate choice of others (grouse lek) |
| intrasexual selection | a form of sexual selection where members of one sex compete with each other for access to the other sex. |
| sexual imprinting | juveniles learn which types of opposite sex to prefer based on parents choices. (japanese quail) |
| Anne Houde | studies sexual selection in guppies and the effects of symmetry on mate choice |
| Vertical | a mode of cultural transmission that involves offspring learning from parents |
| Horizontal | cultural transmission that involes offspring learning from peers |
| Oblique | cultural transmission that involves young animals learning from non-related elder animals |
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