AP Bio Ch. 51 Vocab

what an animal does and how it does it

a research field which originated in the 1930s with naturalists who tried to understand how a variety of animals behave in their natural habitats

a sequence of behaviorial acts that is essentially unchangeable and usually carried to completion once initiated

an external sensory stimulus that triggers an FAP

the research approach based on the expectation that animals increase their Darwinian fitness by optimal behavior

a set of key characteristics that will lead an animal to the desired object

the concept that natural selection will favor animals that choose foraging strategies that maximize the differential between benefits and costs

formally defined as the modification of behavior resulting from specific experiences

a process which has ongoing developmental changes in neuromuscular systems

a very simple type of learning that involves a loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no information

learning that is limited to a specific time period in an animal's life and that is generally irreversible

a limited phase in an individual animal's development when learning of particular behaviors can take place

the ability of many animals to learn to associate one stimulus with another

a type of associative learning well known from the laboratory studies of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov in the early 1900s; learning to associate an arbitrary stimulus with a reward or punishment; (Dogs learn to associate a bell with food, so they salivate when the bell rings

also called trial-and-error learning; an animal learns to associate one of its own behaviors with a reward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavior

a behavior that many mammals and some birds engage in that has no apparent external goal but involves movements closely associated with goal-directed behaviors

the ability of an animal's nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information gathered by sensory receptors

the study of animal cognition that attempts to illustrate the connection between data processing by nervous systems and animal behavior

internal representations, or codes, of the spatial relationships among objects in their surroundings

involves a simple change in activity rate in response to a stimulus

a more or less automatic, oriented movement toward or away from some stimulus

regular movement over relatively long distances

any kind of interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species

a relatively new discipline which applies evolutionary theory as a foundation for the study and interpretation of social behavior

a contest involving both threatening and submissive behavior determines which competitor gains access to some resource, such as food or a mate

a clear "pecking order"; within a group, alpha, beta, and so on down the line to the omega, or lowest, animal

an area that an individual defends, usually excluding other members of its own species

defined as the time and resources an individual must expend to produce offspring

a small area in which males display communally

mating with no strong pair-bonds or lasting relationships

a relationship in which the mates remain together for a longer period; one male mating with one female

a relationship in which the mates remain together for a longer period; most often involves a single male and many females called polygny

when, in some species, a single female mates with several males

chemical signals that are especially common among mammals and insects and often relate to reproductive behavior

when, on occasion, animals behave in ways that reduce their individual fitness and increase the fitness of the recipient of the behavior

describes the total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing its own offspring and by providing aid that enables other close relatives to increase the production of their offspring

the proportion of genes that are identical in two individuals because of common ancestors

the individual's altruism can result in more genes identical to its own in the next generation if it aids a sibling rather than a cousin; this mechanism of increasing inclusive fitness

for example, when a baboon may help an unrelated companion in a fight, or a wolf may offer food to another wolf even though they share no kinship; a sort of exchange of aid