Download Introduction to Behavior and Methods of Studying Behavior

Introduction to Behavior and Methods of Studying Behavior (Chapters 1 – 3)
Obj 1 Define “Behavior” and “Ethology”
The term “behavior” refers to activities an animal exhibits in response to a stimulus (an
event or condition that leads to a reaction). We will study behaviors animal perform for
the purposes of procuring food and shelter, finding mates, producing offspring, protecting
the organism from the elements, and avoiding predators.
“Ethology” is the study of behavior in nature and considers the function, evolution, and
mechanisms of exhibited behavior.
Obj 2 Explain why the behavior of animals is studied
Why do people study animal behavior? Beyond satisfying the curiosity people have about
the natural world, the study of animal behavior contributes to:
 the control of economically important animals, especially pests (mosquitoes, mice,
aphids, etc.)
 the improvement our ability to care for and train domestic animals (dogs, cats, parrots,
etc.)
 enable us to better, and more humanely, exploit animals that do our work (horses,
oxen), provide food (cows, pigs, chickens) and clothing (sheep, cows), and that are
used to test medicines and products (rats, monkeys, rabbits)
 the conservation and protection of endangered species
 helping us understand OUR behavior
Obj 3 Create and ethogram
An ethogram is an inventory of an animal’s behavior (courtship, nesting, sleeping, feeding,
etc. The creation of an ethogram is often the first step in an animal behavior experiment.
Obj 4 Model different approaches to studying animal behavior
1. Ethology: studying behavior in a natural setting. An example of an ethological study
might be the study of territorial behavior in gulls on a certain island.
Ethology involves four areas of inquiry:
causation (what triggers the behavior)
development (how does the animal develop the behavior; nature or nurture)
evolution (what is the evolutionary history of a behavior)
function (how the behavior influences an animal’s ability to survive and reproduce).
2. Comparative Psychology: comparing the behavior (often learning) of different species
in a laboratory setting, to reveal relationships among them. A simple example would be
studying how rats and other lab animals learn a particular type of new information.
Sometimes an inference to how humans learn will be made.
3. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. These approaches involve extensive field
experiments, often augmented with laboratory studies. They concern how natural
selection may have shaped observed behavior.
Behavioral ecology is the studying the interactions among different organism with each
other and with their environment. It often deals with habitat selection, feeding, and other
aspects of a species’ ecological niche that refer to behavior. An example of such a study
might be determining the relationship between the length of a song sparrow’s song and its
ability to acquire and maintain a good territory.
Sociobiology is concerned with the social system of a species (like ants) and why the
system evolved.
Obj 5 Explain the contributions to the modern study of animal behavior by key
individuals.
Aristotle (Greek 384 – 322 B.C.) and Pliny (Roman 23 – 79 A.D.) used the observational
approach to describe behaviors observed – often ascribing human characteristics or
attributes to nonhumans (anthropomorphism). Although their observations were biased by
religion and philosophy, as well as by a lack of knowledge, their models were the basis for
human understanding of the natural world for many centuries.
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) and A. R. Wallace (1823 – 1913) related behavior to
natural selection.
George John Romanes (1848 – 1894) formalized the use of the comparative method,
inferring the relationships among organisms like worms, insects, fish, reptile, birds, and
mammals based on their behavioral complexity.
C. Lloyd Morgan (1852 – 1936) implemented the modern observational method that
emphasized the importance of direct experimentation rather than using inferences to make
conclusions.
Gregor Mendel (1822 – 1884) developed the basis of our modern ideas about genetics and
inheritance, that explain how traits – including some behaviors – are passed from
generation to generation.
John Dewey’s (1859 – 1952) work contributed to the psychology of adaptive behavior, a
notion that behavior functions in the animal’s survival in its natural habitat.
John B. Watson (1878 – 1958) founded the approach termed behaviorism that asserts that
animal behavior consists of an animal’s responses, reactions, or adjustments to stimuli and
that most activities are products of past experiences.
Konrad Lorenz (1903 – 1989) and Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907 – 1988) developed modern
ethology, studying behavior in natural settings – see above.
Charles J. Krebs (still an active researcher) is one of the researchers who pioneered
behavioral ecology, that examines how animals interact with their environments and the
survival value of behavior.
E. O. Wilson (still an active researcher) is famous for his work involving sociobiology, in
particular the evolution of social societies like ants.
Obj 6 Differentiate between proximate and ultimate causation of behavior
Understanding both proximate and ultimate factors is necessary.
The proximate factors focus on “how” questions; those involving the ways in which
behavior is directly produced and regulated. Example: how do environmental clues (day
length, temperature) prompt bullfrogs to compete for territories in the spring?
Ultimate factors are those that answer “why” questions. Why do bullfrogs defend
territories when day length is a certain number of hours?
Obj 7 Discuss common problems of animal behavior studies
Some potential problems with behavior studies are universal. They include:
assuming the animal being studied perceives the world as humans do. In fact, many
animals use some senses more or less than humans do, or perceive the world very
differently. For instance, many mammals use the sense of smell more than humans do,
and many insects can see wavelengths of light that humans cannot. Assuming the animals
experience only the stimuli that are apparent to the tester could affect the test results.
Confusing correlation with causation. Sometimes two behaviors are usually observed
together; there it thus a correlation between the two. Assuming (without testing) that one
causes the other will often result in faulty conclusions.
Choosing test subjects, timing, and conditions. Animals at different stages of life, and at
different times of the day or year, may behave very differently. Similarly, where the
experiment takes place can affect the behavior observed. Squirrels in a city park probably
behave differently than squirrels in a more natural setting.
Obj 8 Compare the advantages and disadvantages of field and lab experiments.
Sometimes researchers choose to perform field studies and sometimes lab studies, or both,
in order to provide the most reliable and meaningful data. There are advantages and
disadvantages to both.
Field experiments. Advantages: animals are studied in their natural habitat where
functional relationships are more readily discerned and an evolutionary perspective can be
employed. Disadvantage: it is impossible to control all variables that may affect a
behavior, including the animals’ past experiences.
Lab experiments. Advantage: a high degree of control over the test subjects and
conditions is possible. Disadvantages: lab studies rely heavily on laboratory animals and
the influence of domestication may skew results. In addition, behaviors in captivity may
be considerably different from those in nature.