BI102

General Biology

Spring 2010

Dr. Brian K. Penney

Goulet 2320

603 641-7149

bpenney@anselm.edu

Brian K. Penney 's web page

---

1. Define behavior and distinguish between the proximate and ultimate causes of a behavior.

   • Behavior is activity (muscular or otherwise) triggered by a stimulus, governing interactions with the environment or other individuals.
   • Behavior can be explained by both proximate (immediate interactions with the environment) and ultimate (evolutionary) factors.
   • All behavior consists of genetic components modified by experience. [be able to describe an example behavior and how genetic and environmental (learning) components contribute to this behavior

   ---

2. List example innate, genetically determined behaviors and describe the adaptive advantage of such behaviors.

   Genetic components of behavior include:

   • Innate behaviors are genetically fixed, and appear virtually identical within a species (e.g. Fixed Action Patterns (FAPs) in response to sign stimuli) and form with selection for invariant behavior.
   • Circadian rhythms are innate patterns of activity that are kept in sync with the environment through cues such as daylight.
   • kineses and taxes reflect programmed responses to environmental variables

   Innate behaviors likely come from cases where automatically performing a behavior a certain way maximizes fitness to the point that variant alleles no longer exist in the population. Often this is because a behavior must be done right the first time and every time.

   ---

3. Define seven types of learning and note the adaptive advantages and examples of each.

   Learning is modification of behavior in response to experience in the environment, such as:

   • habituation
   • imprinting
   • spatial learning
   • cognitive mapping
   • associative learning
   • imitation (social learning)
   • problem solving/cognition (KNOW TABLE 35.4)

   Non-human capacity for cognition is debated

   ---

4. Define types of behavior used in movement, and their learned versus innate properties

   • Movement can be guided via simple stimulus/response or spatial learning (use of landmarks, etc.) and range up to migrations
   • Cognitive maps include landmarks but extend to a spatial representation of terrain and conditions

   ---

5. Define Behavioral Ecology and its important subfield, optimal foraging theory.

   • Behavioral ecology searches for ultimate explanations for behavior through cost/benefit analyses, especially in foraging
   • Animals often form search images of valuable prey items
   • Optimal foraging theory uses estimates of food value versus relative costs and risks of procurement to explain how animals decide among prey choices in their environment.

Copyright 2007-2010, Brian K. Penney

How to succeed in this course