Introduction to behavior

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Introduction to behavior

• A demonstration

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stimulus response cartoon here
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(No Transcript)
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Introduction to behavior

• What is behavior?
• A rapid and appropriate response to an
  environmental stimulus

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Introduction to behavior

• What is behavior?
• A rapid and appropriate response to an
  environmental stimulus
• How do they do this?

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Introduction to behavior

• What is behavior?
• A rapid and appropriate response to an
  environmental stimulus
• Why do they do this?

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Introduction to behavior

• What is behavior?
• A rapid and appropriate response to an
  environmental stimulus
• Why do they do this?
• What would be an inappropriate response?

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Introduction to behavior

• How does behavior become adaptive?

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Introduction to behavior

• What are the important elements of the
  environment that select for behavioral
  characteristics?

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Introduction to behavior

• What are the important elements of the
  environment that select for behavioral
  characteristics?
• Abiotic

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Introduction to behavior

• What are the important elements of the
  environment that select for behavioral
  characteristics?
• Abiotic
• Biotic

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Introduction to behavior

• What are the important elements of the
  environment that select for behavioral
  characteristics?
• Abiotic
• Biotic
• Social!!!

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Introduction to behavior

• Some historical context

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Introduction to behavior

• Some historical context
• The comparative psychologists

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Introduction to behavior

• Some historical context
• The comparative psychologists
• Studied a limited range of behaviors (maze
  learning, task learning, appetitive behavior,
  avoidance behavior, etc.)

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Introduction to behavior

• Some historical context
• The comparative psychologists
• Studied a limited range of behaviors
• In a limited number of species (lab rats, mice,
  pigeons, monkeys, etc.)

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Introduction to behavior
the Skinner Box
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Introduction to behavior

• Some historical context
• The comparative psychologists
• Studied a limited range of behaviors
• In a limited number of species
• Usually in captivity (artificial, experimental
  environments of a variety of types)

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Introduction to behavior

• Some more historical context
• The ethologists (primarily European, in the
  1940s and 1950s)

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Introduction to behavior

• Some more historical context
• The ethologists
• Emphasized studies of wild animals under natural
  conditions (honeybees, ducks, geese, wolves,
  gulls, wasps)

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Introduction to behavior

• Some more historical context
• The ethologists
• Emphasized studies of wild animals under natural
  conditions
• Studied a broad range of behavioral phenomena
  (communication, aggression, territoriality,
  learning, navigation, migration)

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Introduction to behavior

• Some more historical context
• In 1973, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or
  Medicine went to three European ethologists

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Introduction to behavior

• Karl von Frisch

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Introduction to behavior

• Von Frisch studied communication in honeybees

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Introduction to behavior

• The waggle dance of a foraging worker tells her
  sisters about the food source

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Introduction to behavior

• Konrad Lorenz

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Introduction to behavior

• Lorenz studied aggression in canids (dogs, wolves)

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Introduction to behavior

• Lorenz studied aggression in canids (dogs)
• and learning in birds

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Introduction to behavior

• Lorenz studied aggression in canids (dogs)
• and learning in birds
• Imprinting irreversible learning that occurs
  early in ontogeny during a brief critical period

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Introduction to behavior

• Fixed Action Patterns
• stereotyped behaviors
• innate
• fixed because they are always done completely
  once begun

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Introduction to behavior

• Fixed Action Patterns
• stereotyped behaviors
• innate
• fixed because they are always done completely
  once begun
• elicited by releasers

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Introduction to behavior

• Nikolas Tinbergen

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Introduction to behavior

• Niko Tinbergen had a lasting effect on the
  development of the scientific study of animal
  behavior
• He emphasized the use of experiments

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Introduction to behavior

• Niko Tinbergen had a lasting effect on the
  development of the scientific study of animal
  behavior
• He emphasized the use of experiments
• and use of the comparative method

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Introduction to behavior
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Introduction to behavior

• The comparative method takes advantage of
  divergent evolution and convergent evolution to
  assess the evolutionary effect of the environment
  on behavior and other phenotypes

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Introduction to behavior

• Divergent evolution -
• phylogenetically closely related species in
  different environments
• Convergent evolution -
• phylogenetically distantly related species in
  similar environments

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Introduction to behavior

• The heritable part of heritable variation has
  caused some controversy
• There is plenty of data to demonstrate that
  expression of most behaviors of non-human animals
  has a genetic component
• In fruit flies
• What about humans?

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Introduction to behavior
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Introduction to behavior
Effect of environment
r 1.0
MZT
MZA
Effect of genetics
DZT
DZA
r 0.5
raised together
raised apart
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Introduction to behavior
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Introduction to behavior
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Introduction to behavior

• personality trait
• well being
• social potency
• achievement
• social closeness
• stress reaction
• aggression
• control
• absorption
• harm avoidance
• traditionalism

• heritability
• 0.48
• 0.59
• 0.39
• 0.40
• 0.53
• 0.44
• 0.44
• 0.50
• 0.55
• 0.45