Chapter 3 The Process of Science:
Studying Animal Behavior
 3.1
Biologists study behavior through
observation and experiments
 3.2 Experiments show that both
genes and environment affect
behavior
 3.3 Learning is behavior based on
experience
 3.4 Social behaviors are important
adaptations in many species
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3.1 Biologists study behavior through
observation and experiments
Objectives
Define animal behavior.
Describe examples of studying behavior through
observations and experiments.
Distinguish between immediate and ultimate causes of
behavior.
Key Terms
animal behavior
immediate cause
ultimate cause
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3.1Define animal behavior


Animal behavior—what an animal does as it
interacts with its environment.
Scientists rely on two approaches to explore
life: discovery science (observation and careful
description) and hypothesis-based science
(testing explanations, usually with
experiments)
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3.1Define animal behavior
ObservationJane Goodall
chimps

ExperimentationTinbergen
Digger Wasps

Tinbergen used simple materials
—pine cones and stones—
and a simple procedure.
The results led him to conclude that
digger wasps use a pattern of

landmarks to find their nests
.
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3.1 Define animal behavior


Tinbergen's studies looked for the immediate cause of
the wasp's behavior— an explanation of the
organism's immediate interactions with the
environment
But behavioral biologists also ask "why" questions—
why do organisms behave as they do? Answering
"why" questions involves finding the ultimate cause
of a behavior—an explanation based on the
organism's evolutionary adaptations
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3.2

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
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
Objectives
Explain the term innate behavior.
Describe the influence of environmental
cues on rhythmic behaviors.
Describe how both genes and experience
can influence behavior.
Key Terms
• innate behavior
• fixed action pattern
• circadian rhythm
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3.2 Explain the term innate
behavior.

Researchers have observed that
digger wasps raised in isolation build
nests in the same way as wasps
raised among other wasps A
behavior that is performed correctly
by all individuals of a species, even if
they have no previous experience
with the behavior, is called an innate
behavior.
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3.2 Explain the term innate
behavior
fixed action pattern
(abbreviated FAP)—
an innate behavior
that occurs as an
Unchangeable
sequence of actions

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3.2 Explain the term innate
behavior
This type of innate
rhythm with a cycle
of about 24 hours is
called a circadian
rhythm
 Circadian rhythms
are controlled by
an organism's
internal "biological
clock”

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3.2 Investigating the Interaction of Genes and
Experience: A Case Study
An experiment
with lovebirds
demonstrated
 that hybrid offspring
could alter inherited
behavior based
on experience
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3.3





Objectives
Distinguish habituation, imprinting, and conditioning as
forms of learning.
Explain the term insight.
Summarize two hypotheses about the purpose of play
behavior.
Key Terms





learning
habituation
imprinting
conditioning
insight
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3.3 Distinguish habituation, imprinting,
and conditioning as forms of learning

A change in an animal's behavior resulting
from experience is called learning. A
simple form of learning is habituation, in
which an animal learns not to respond to a
repeated stimulus that conveys little or no
important information
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3.3 Distinguish habituation, imprinting,
and conditioning as forms of learning
Some of the most interesting cases involve
imprinting. Imprinting
 is learning that is limited to a
 specific time period in an
 animal's life and that is usually irreversible
 imprinting takes place during a particular
time period in an animal's development
called a critical learning period
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3.3 Distinguish habituation, imprinting,
and conditioning as forms of learning
Learning that a particular
 stimulus or a particular
 response is linked to
 a reward or punishment
 is called conditioning
 Ivan Pavlov
 classical conditioning

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3.3Explain the term insight.

At a level above operant conditioning is
the ability to respond appropriately to a
new situation without previous experience,
called insight or innovation. For example,
an octopus can figure out how to unscrew
the lid of a jar and obtain the food inside
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3.4 Explain the significance of
courtship rituals

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Objectives
Identify examples of competitive behaviors.
Explain the significance of courtship rituals.
Relate communication to other social behaviors.
Give an example of cooperation in an animal species.
Key Terms
 aggressive behavior
 dominance hierarchy
 territory
 courtship ritual
 communication
 cooperation
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3.4 Identify examples of competitive
behaviors
 Actual physical struggles or threatening behaviors





between animals are classified as aggressive
behaviors
Aggressive behaviors
within a group of animals
often result in a ranking of
individuals, called a dominance hierarchy
Many animals exhibit territorial behavior. A territory is
an area that individuals defend and from which other
members of the same species are usually excluded
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3.4 Explain the significance of
courtship rituals
 In some species, animals perform elaborate
behaviors before mating, called a courtship
ritual
controlled experiment demonstrated that female
barn swallows tend to prefer mates with the
longest tails. One hypothesis to explain this
result is that a male must be healthy for long tail
feathers to develop. Natural selection would
favor female birds choosing these longer-tailed
males.
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3.4 Relate communication to other
social behaviors
.
One of the most complex
social systems
is found in honeybees.
In the 1940s, biologist
Karl von Frisch
carried out several
experiments to study
bee communication
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3.4 Give an example of cooperation in
an animal species
 The social system of the honeybees is one
example of a group of behaviors described as
cooperation,
 in which individuals
 work together in a way
 that is beneficial to the group.
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