Sample Exam 1 for Animal Behavior

Matching (20 points)   ___ Biological Clocks ___ Sensory world ___ Kasper Hauser ___ Particle motion detector ___ Trial-and-Error ___ Imprinting ___ Anthropomorphism ___ Releaser ___ Pit viper (e.g. rattlesnake) ___ Honeybees A Walt Disney B Critical period C Sound D Infrared detectors E Sign stimulus F Zeitgeber G Umwelt H Operant conditioning I Hygienic behavior J Isolation experiment Short Answers and Definitions (40 points; 5 points each) Answer only eight (8) of the following 11 questions. If more than 8 are answered only the first 8 will be graded. Most of these questions require short (1-2 sentence) answers. Write in complete sentences. Include examples where appropriate even if they are not specifically requested. 1. How did the work of the early ethologists and early experimental psychologists differ?   2. Define learning.   3. Fixed ratio, variable ratio and fixed interval refer to experiments that deal with what kind of learning.    4. What was the dependent variable measured by Pavlov.    5. If the action potentials traveling down a sensory neuron are always the same size, how does the brain know if a stimulus is strong or weak?   6. Define circadian.   7. Cite two lines of evidence that biological clocks are endogenous.   8. How does taste-aversion learning differ from most examples of classical conditioning?   9. Motivational effect of hormone   10. Human twin studies    11. Observational learning   Short Essays (40 points; 10 point each) Answer only four (4) of the six questions. Continue answers on the back if necessary.  1. Why does the following hypothetical quote represent an example of group selectionist thinking, and what is its logical flaw: "Although many moose calves die in their first year, not many need to survive to keep the population stable, since only about 15 percent of the adult population dies each year. It is almost as if the excess infants are programmed to be eaten, insuring sufficient energy transfer to support the system’s major predators and scavengers.   2. What is a supernormal stimulus? Design an experiment to determine if red lips are a supernormal stimulus for humans.   3. What does the term generalization mean in the context of classical conditioning. Explain how Batesian mimicry depends on this phenomenon.    4. Describe how the rat brain becomes masculinized. Does the behavior of a rat with a masculinized brain differ from that of a rat with a feminized brain if both are given equal levels of testosterone? 5. A population of Drosophila shows a positive phototaxis. The average time required to crawl 30 cm is 8 seconds, but there is a lot of variability within the population. Two flies that took 12 seconds to cover 30 cm are mated. Their offspring cover the distance in an average of 10 seconds. What is the heritability value (HN) of this trait? The heritability of human IQ is about 0.7. Explain what this means. 6. Sparrows, lizards, and mice are all affected by the photoperiod to which they are exposed. Give an example of the kind of animal that would not be expected to have a neural mechanism that records photoperiodic information for use in organizing behavior. Explain why.

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Send comments to:     Robert P. Gendron     Biology Department     Indiana University of Pennsylvania     Indiana, PA 15705     rgendron@iup.edu copyright © 1998-2003, Robert P. Gendron, Revised - 20 May 2003.