Biol 345

• Define behaviour


  the actions and reactions of whole organisms
• Interpreting causes for behavioural differences among individuals: Proximate causes

  Ultimate causes

  Genetic influences on behaviour

  Behavioural influences on gene expression (epigenetics)

  Environmental influences on behaviour
• How did the mindset of researchers studying animal behaviour change from Aristotle to modern ethologists like Tinbergen and Lorenz: The mindset evolved from Aristotle's belief that animals lack rational thought and are driven by basic impulses to Descartes' mechanistic view of reflex actions without consciousness. Later, Darwin proposed evolutionary continuity between human and animal minds, suggesting shared cognitive processes. Romanes and Morgan emphasized learning and simpler explanations for behaviour, respectively. Thorndike and Pavlov introduced empirical studies on learning through trial and error and classical conditioning. Modern ethologists like Tinbergen and Lorenz focused on innate behaviours, imprinting, and the importance of studying animals in natural contexts, incorporating evolutionary, developmental, and functional perspectives.
• Define cognitive laterality: the dominance of one side of the brain for a particular function
• What are the two major behavioural modes? Stereotyped and acquired
• Explain stereotyped behaviour: Stimulus triggers the same response. Can be considered innate
• Give two examples of stereotyped behaviour

  breathing and blinking
• Explain acquired behaviour: When experience and learning modify a response to a stimulus
• Give 4 examples of acquired behaviour: walking, whistling, language, hunting
• Define taxes: direct orientation of an organism with respect to a gradient
• What is a positive taxis?

  move towards
• what is a negative taxis?

  away from stimulus
• Define reflexive behaviour


  Involuntary, automatic responses to specific stimuli.
• What is a special feature of reflexive behaviour? They are important and basic responses
• Give examples of reflex behaviour: pupillary constriction to bright light, knee jerk coughing
• Define instinctive behaviour: simple or complex behaviours that are stereotyped for a species
• What is a special feature of instinctive behaviour? They can be heritable or acquired
• Define F.A.P: A fixed action pattern is a sequence of innate behaviors that is relatively invariant and once initiated, usually runs to completion.
• Give an example of F.A.P in animals: Egg retrieval in geese
• Give an example of F.A.P in humans

  Sneezing
• Define learning


  change of behaviour based on experience
• Define habituation


  reduction in natural response with experience
• Define classical conditioning: is a learning process in which an innate response to a potent stimulus becomes associated with a previously neutral stimulus
• Define operant conditioning: is a type of learning in which the strength of a behavior is modified by its consequences, such as reinforcement or punishment
• Define reasoning: ability to solve complex problems by more than trial and error and stimulus-bound responses
• What are the two types of behaviour laterality? individual and population
• Explain individual behavioural laterality: a statistical trend to either left- or right-side behaviour
• Explain population behavioural laterality: more than 50% of the individuals show behavioural trend in the same direction
• How does the Wada test demonstrate brain asymmetry? The Wada test involves injecting sodium amytal into either the left or right carotid artery while the patient counts numbers, showing that left carotid injection disrupts vocalization in about 90% of individuals, indicating left hemisphere dominance for language.
• What is 'situs inversus totalis'? It is a rare genetic trait where there is a 180-degree flip in the viscera and brain anatomy, occurring in 1 in 6000 people, and indicates that anatomical and behavioural laterality are not always linked.
• What did the study on 1960 right-handed and 106 left-handed participants reveal about handedness and brain structure? It found a nominally significant association between handedness and the surface area of the left precentral sulcus, but no effect survived statistical correction for multiple testing.
• What did meta-analyses reveal about cognitive skills and handedness? Right-handedness has a small cognitive advantage in spatial ability, but no significant difference in verbal ability between left- and right-handers, except for a slight right-hand benefit in children.
• How is handedness prevalence in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) compared to typically developing (TD) individuals? Elevated levels of atypical handedness are robust in the ID to TD comparison, indicating a higher prevalence of left-handedness in individuals with ID.
• What is the evolutionary significance of handedness in humans and great apes? Population-level right-handedness is a defining characteristic of humans, linked to brain lateralization and the evolution of language, while great apes show hand preferences that vary between tasks.
• What did studies on nonhuman primates reveal about population-level handedness? Population-level right-handedness is found in chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas, while orangutans show left-handedness, suggesting ecological adaptations affect handedness.
• How does bipedalism affect lateralization in humans? Bipedalism induces subjects to become more lateralized, although not in a particular direction.
• What evidence is there for laterality in humpback whales and dolphins? Examples include right-flipper use in humpback whales for slapping water and left-flipper use in dolphins for flipper rubbing, indicating species-specific lateralized behaviors.
• How do studies on dogs show hemispheric dominance? Dogs demonstrate left-biased wagging towards unfamiliar conspecifics and right-biased wagging for heterospecific stimuli, indicating left brain withdrawal and right brain approach mechanisms.
• What findings were reported on bears and handedness? Bears exhibit right paw bias for complex tasks, showing individual and population-level lateralization.
• What does increased complexity of a task indicate about laterality? Increased complexity of a task leads to stronger laterality.