Study Guide from Student Questions and previous exam questions
1. Crespi in 1942 did experiments with rats and mazes; he learned that rats would run through the maze at a
faster rate if he changed one variable. What was the variable that was used to help the rats in this experiment move faster through the maze? What terms were coined to describe the change in behavior of these animals?
2. List or explain the difference between procedural
rules and declarative rules.
3. In 1980 Morris experimented with mice and their ability to go through mazes, what is this called?
4. There are three genes and three proteins involved with circadian rhythm. What are the proteins and which ones activate each other and what role do they play?
5. Imprinting has found to be only in precocial animals, what is precocial? And what other imprinting is there?
6. The killdeer will fake an injury to lure a predator away from its eggs. If the killdeer is successful in
fooling the predator then there will be no reward for the predator. If it can be assumed that animals learn
by repetition, do you think that the killdeer will have to learn a new tactic to fool the predator?
7. What two individuals are considered to be the fathers of Ethology and what did they study?
8. What is the Crespi effect?
9. If a baboon was swinging through the forest and saw a stash of bananas and he decided to eat them without telling his group members, what kind of consequences would he expect? What does this describe?
10. What are Enteroreceptors? and give an example as to how this works.
11. What is Cognition?
12. Describe Social parasitism, how and what animal uses this?
13. What is the importance of social interactions? Why would such interactions evolve?
14. Explain the experiment preformed by Lorenz and what it shows us about imprinting.
15. It is believed that most primates can recognize themselves in the mirror, which scientist now use as the basic concept of self recognition. Dolphins too have learned to identify themselves along with apes and humans. Two hypothesis of the self identity theory have been purposed. Identify the two.
16. Distinguish between innate behavior and learned behavior.
17. Describe Lorenz and Tinbergan's study in ethology.
18. What form of cultural transmission do you think is more of an advantage, vertical or oblique?
19. If a baby monkey was raised by humans since birth, never saw another monkey or saw itself in the mirror. Do you think it would cognitively think it was in fact a monkey or think it was nothing more than a hairy human or do you think it would some how catch on?
20. Why do you think it is important for animals to be able to recognize kinship or the relationship between other members of its species?
21. Proximate or Ultimate?
22. What results from rats being exposed to hormones in utero? Give specific example.
23. Give an example of an animal that is thought to have cognition. Explain the experiment and the pioneer that performed it.
24. In the Morris tank, what experiment was done with the rat?
a) placed in a star shaped maze to find the reward
b) had a press the bar in the Skinner Box to receive a reward
c) placed in a tank of murky water and to find the platform
d) none of the above
25. "Why is the cat's pupal shaped like it is?" Is this an ultimate of proximate question and why?
26. __________________ is when learning in an animal is reinforced when the correct response is shown.
a) Operant conditioning
b) Instrumental conditioning
c) goal-directed conditioning
d) all the above
27. When asking a questions and you ask "How is that...?" you are asking a _____________ question. When you ask "Why is that....?" you are asking a ____________ question, and then you ask "What is that....?" you are asking a ____________ question.
a) proximate, ultimate, ultimate
b) ultimate, proximate, ultimate
c) ultimate, proximate, proximate
d) Proximate, ultimate, proximate
28. What would be another reason that an animal stops feeding rather than it being full, discussed in class? Give an example.
29. What are two ways of holding memory, discussed in class? Give examples of each.
30. What is meant by social invention?
31.
32. Steroid hormones and peptide hormones were discussed in class. What are the differences between them? (include which is larger, how each interacts with the cell, and which one works faster)
33. We discussed the article "Eight Arms with Attitude" in class. From what you read in the article and the discussion in class do octopuses have personalities and do they play. Explain. (Provide evidence that you recall from the discussion and/or from the article)
34. What is a proximate explanation? Ultimate?
35. What are the traits known as, that result from natural selection?
36. What are the two types of learning?
37. We know that DNA codes for traits and genes code for enzymes. The per, tim and tau genes can be found in mammals. What enzymes do these genes code for, and how do they affect the “internal clock” of the mammal? Using the idea of the negative feedback loop, explain how per is built up and broken down, and the role the other genes and enzymes play in this process.
38. In a naked mole rat’s colony there is only one female that is fertile (the queen), even though there are other females present. Why is the queen the only female mole rat in the colony that can give birth to offspring? ie. What does the queen do to make this possible.
39. Explain the role that hormones have on behavior in a cellular sense. You may draw pictures if necessary to explain your answer.
General Topics to consider:
Proximate and ultimate causes of behavior
Genetic and learned components of behavior
Fixed action patterns, classic conditioning, and operant conditioning
Enteroceptors, extroceptors and connections to behavior
Various forms of imprinting
Circadian rhythm regulation (study your handout)
Point vs. non-point mutations
Roles of hormones on behavior
Kinship and the evolution of the haploidiploidy system
Motivation
Crespi effect
Cognition
Morris tank
Procedural rules vs. declarative representations
Deception
Readings (including in-class questions & homework)
Video clips
Questions from previous exams:
1. Innate or fixed action potentials occur in various animal species. The example that we used in class focused on geese and egg rolling. Which of the following statements is TRUE regarding such innate behaviors?
a. they are exactly the same for all individuals of that species
b. because behaviors are stereotyped, they must be inherited
c. they will complete themselves when the correct stimulus is received, regardless of any further input from the environment
d. all of the above are true
2. The Crespi Effect was illustrated with rats moving through a maze with a reward of food waiting at the end of the maze. What happened when rats were given more food at the end of the maze?
a. they exhibited the frustration effect
b. they gained weight
c. they consumed less food and thus had “left-overs”
d. they increased their running speed on subsequent trials
3. Tolman came up with the concept of a cognitive map, which shows that an animal:
a. can use spatial relationships to determine where something of significance is located (such as food or home)
b. can construct a fixed location of something significant in the environment by using odors
c. can only construct such a map for a short duration – after several months a new map would be constructed
d. all of the above are true
4. Animals have been shown to hold information in memory in several ways. If an animal gets bits of information, but these pieces do not tell the animal specifically what to do, rather they must be messed into its existing behavior, we say the animal is following ___________. An example of this might be if an animal smells a particular odor and is exposed to a female. This follows the presence of food. All of these bits of information help the animal become motivated to mate with the female.
a. procedural rules
b. classical conditioning
c. declarative representations
d. fixed action potential
5. Intelligence in higher primates such as great apes and chimpanzees is thought to have evolved in response to:
a. predation
b. obtaining food
c. parasite avoidance
d. social invention
6. A gene that is conserved is one:
a. that mutates on a regular basis
b. does not change over time
c. changes slightly over time, but is seen in a variety of animals
d. that regulates homeostasis
7. Cognition is defined as the action or faculty of knowing. Terms such as reasoning, showing intelligence, and foresight has also been used to describe cognitive ability. In your opinion do animals (don’t just focus on primates!) have cognitive ability? Defend your answer.
8. What is meant by the circadian rhythm of animals? Explain how a fruit fly is "active" and "inactive" when considering how the circadian rhythm works internally.
This is only a START to your studying - remember to make up questions for one another and practice! You will be rewarded.... :-)