Biology | Answers to Review Questions

Author Dr. George B. Johnson, Washington University
Author Dr. Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Gardens & Washington University
Contributor Dr. Susan Singer, Carleton College
Contributor Dr. Jonathan Losos, Washington University

Answers to Review Questions

Chapter 26 (p. 552)

1. Hybrid lovebirds have a nesting behavior intermediate between the two parental species, lending strength to the genetic basis for behavior. This suggests that this particular type of behavior is instinctive.

2. In associative learning, an animal forms an association between two stimuli, whereas in nonassociative learning they do not. Classical conditioning involves forming an association between two stimuli presented simultaneously (such as in Pavlov's dogs); in operant conditioning, the animal learns to associate a behavior with a reward or a punishment.

3. Filial imprinting involves the formation of parent/offspring bonds. Sexual imprinting concerns how early experience affects an animal’s ability to identify mates of it own species. A moving box is just as good an imprinting stimulus as a real parent because the first object seen by a young animal is, in fact, its parent.

4. The nature/nurture controversy involved whether behavior was instinctive or learned. Marler's work on bird song development showed that both instinct and learning make important contributions in shaping behavior.

5. Communication signals are species-specific, thus limiting sexual communication to members of one species. Firefly flash patterns, bird song, and some insect sex pheromones are species-specific. Some signals are individual specific to signal individual identity associated with protection of territory, nest, and mate. Each individual is readily identified to prevent wasting energy in continual singing or aggression.

6. A taxis is movement toward or away from a stimulus; kineses are changes in activity levels due to a stimulus. These differ from migration in that migrations are long-range movements. Migration patterns are genetically determined. Patterns do not change, but new information is added to the old. Migrating birds use the sun, the stars, and the detection of the earth’s magnetic field to orient themselves on migration.

7. Indeed, many will accept no evidence as indicative of animal thinking. The most compelling evidence is that of an animal solving a problem that it had never seen before and had not been taught.