Ethology Lecture Notes PDF

2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean Jan 21 2025 | Ethology Syllabus Animal Reinforcement Assessment - Complete Lecture Objectives Describe ethology and its study....

2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean Jan 21 2025 | Ethology Syllabus Animal Reinforcement Assessment - Complete Lecture Objectives Describe ethology and its study. Describe a brief history of the study of animal behavior. What is Ethology? Ethology = a branch of zoology that studies the behaviour of non-human animals What is Animal Behavior? Behavior = the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment https://app.glean.co/event/ea3dc0ba-9644-4853-924d-b4e0e51ac6bf/view 1/7 2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean the link between organisms and the environment and between the nervous system and the ecosystem Why Study Animal Behavior? Early History - grounded in practical need animals where an important source of food, they assumed important roles in early rituals and religious beliefs, and were used for transportation Animals are kept as pets, entertainment, work, raised for food/clothing, improve the human condition, hunting, and other forms of work Many assume animals think like us (anthropomorphism) deeper understanding requires thinking of them as individual organisms (need to think like them) Implications Animal Behavior and Human Society Environment and Behavior, Genetics and Behavior, Social Development, Emotional Development, Language Development, Biological Rhythms Animal Behavior and Neurobiology Sir Charles Sherrington, model for structure and function of the nervous system Animal Behavior and the Environment, Conservation, and Resource Management Environmental Degradation (populations), Migrations, Insect Reproduction/Control, Honeybees and Pollination, Animal Foraging, Forest Regeneration, Endangered Species Regeneration Animal Behavior and Animal Welfare Wild and domestic animals Animal Behavior and Science Education increased interest in science through animals https://app.glean.co/event/ea3dc0ba-9644-4853-924d-b4e0e51ac6bf/view 2/7 2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean History of Ethology Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1939) = a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. studied digestion in dogs Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1950s) = an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher; developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior Studied Operant Behaviors Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (1970s) = an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology; studied instinctive behavior in animals, investigated the principle of imprinting, inherited behaviors, and the genetic basis of behavior species-specific behavior = develops without an animal experiencing stimuli or without practice of motor patterns behavior is a result of nature Tinbergen Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (1970s) = a Dutch biologist and ornithologist known for his discoveries concerning the organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns in animals Scientific Study of Animals has 4 parts: Causation, Development, Evolution, and Function https://app.glean.co/event/ea3dc0ba-9644-4853-924d-b4e0e51ac6bf/view 3/7 2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean Frisch Karl Ritter von Frisch (1970s) = a German-Austrian ethologist w Studied honeybee waggle dance What is the Mechanism that Produces a Behavior? Internal: nervous, hormonal, physiological Causation --> mechanism Ex. Hungry vs. Well - fed Ontology involves genetic and environmental (or learned) component How Does the Behavior Develop? Where dose the behavior develop from? Metamorphosis or they learn young from an adult How did the behavior evolve from an ancestral state? Origin of behavior from a distant time https://app.glean.co/event/ea3dc0ba-9644-4853-924d-b4e0e51ac6bf/view 4/7 2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean What is the survival value (utility) of a behavior ? Determine usefulness in terms of fitness (survival and reproduction) What is a domestic animal? animal kept by humans as a food source or pet usually gone through selective breeding Training Animals Involves: Learning, Motivation, Socialization Learning Theory = Rules set down by psychologists and behaviorists that used clinically controlled stimuli Stimulus = any detectable change in an animal's environment Response = any behavior or physiological event A response, not a cognitive outcome, such as knowledge (Does not include changes due to motivational factors, physiological variables or fatigue) Learning or conditioning = any relatively permanent change in the probability of a response occurring as a result of experience Learning is involved in the perfection and shaping of most behavior patterns process manifesting itself by adaptive change in individual behavior as the result of experience The 4 P's of Proper training of animals includes: Practice, Persistence, Patience, Praise https://app.glean.co/event/ea3dc0ba-9644-4853-924d-b4e0e51ac6bf/view 5/7 2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean Associative Learning When animals make links between the stimuli and respinses or cues and outcomes Classical Conditioning = a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a neutral stimulus (e.g. a sound) by association with stimulus Operant Conditioning = learning process where voluntary behaviors are modified by association with the addition (or removal) of reward or aversive stimuli voluntary activity that brings about a reward contingency (special link) between a particular behavior and a food reward Classical Conditioning Dog in harness is presented with meat powder (S1) an unconditioned stimulus, and simultaneously presented with another stimulus (S2), the conditioned stimulus Presentation of S2 over time resulted in salivation without S1 The relationship between the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and unconditioned response (UCR), (un - learned) and the conditioned stimulus (CS) and conditioned response (CR) (learned) Pioneered by Pavlov: Dog salivation with the sound of the bell formulating/strengthening an association between a condition stimulus and a response Quantified by: Number of reinforcements needed before first measurable response appears Percent of correct responses Amplitude of conditioned reflex Latency of response Extinction = Loss of response https://app.glean.co/event/ea3dc0ba-9644-4853-924d-b4e0e51ac6bf/view 6/7 2/4/25, 8:39 PM Jan 21 2025 | Ethology - Glean can occur if another stimulus (S2) is continuously presenting without reward (S1) Generalization = another similar stimuli may provoke the response Inhibition = extinction to one stimulus may be true for all Discrimination between similar stimuli may be brought about by selectively reinforcing only one stimulus among trials with other similar stimuli Operant Conditioning The strengthening of an active (operant) response by presenting a reinforcing stimulus if, and only if, the response occurs (response - reward) Consists of presenting or omitting some reward or punishment when the animal makes a specific response The closeness in time between the performance of the response and the reward (known as contiguity) is very important, for a lapse of several seconds may impede learning in most cases Increases controllability of the environment, crucial difference between classical and operant conditioning The closeness in time between the performance of the response and the reward (known as contiguity) is very important, for a lapse of several seconds may impede learning in most cases https://app.glean.co/event/ea3dc0ba-9644-4853-924d-b4e0e51ac6bf/view 7/7