Animal Behavior Webquest

On your own sheet of paper (this means each person submits their own!) answer the following questions. You will need to write the question on your paper as well as your answer! If you are sharing a computer with a classmate, remember that your answers should not be identical to his/hers. Use the links when provided. When links are not available, use primary sources – NOT Wikipedia, yahoo answers, answers.com and the like.

1. Find two different definitions of behavior. Write the two definitions, their sources and develop your own definition based on those.

2. Also define the following two terms: ethology and behaviorism.

3. What is the key difference between methods used in ethology and behaviorism? http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~wrstrick/secu/ansc455/ethvbehr.htm

4. How does the complexity of an organism’s nervous system correlate to its behavior patterns? http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Behavior.html

Use this link for the following four questions: http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/I/InnateBehavior.html

5. Define innate behavior.

6. Describe one human innate behavior, the withdrawal reflex.

7. What are triggers that signal instinctive acts called?

8. How does this apply to the three-spined stickleback?

9. Using pages 6-8 on this page: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/bionet/biol116/o7/presentations/T1L6P1_Animal_Behavior_with_text.pdf create a three-branched tree map describing the types of learned behavior listed. Include definitions and examples. Note that cognitive learning is often called insight learning! Insight learning, which is sometimes needed for solving problems is demonstrated in the following two videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDntbGRPeEU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz6uvIbWZE

10. Compare and contrast classical conditioning and operant conditioning, which are both types of learned behaviors. Use the following link: http://uwf.edu/jgould/classicalvsoperant.pdf be sure to read both pages!

11. Using the above link, define reward and punishment.

12. Imprinting is a behavior that has characteristics of both innate and learned behaviors. Find a definition of imprinting (list your source).

13. Some species of birds will imprint upon the first moving object, whether it be a parent, member of another species or even an inanimate object. Read about imprinting here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/my-life-as-a-turkey/whos-your-mama-the-science-of-imprinting/7367/ and list two facts you learned.

14. Who is Konrad Lorenz? (use the link above)

15. Watch the two videos on this page: https://sites.google.com/site/attachmentie/attachment-theory/imprinting-video-on-youtube

16. Using sources of your choice (which could include your textbook), describe social behavior itself and different types of social behavior such as courtship, competition and communication. Then create a four-branched tree map describing components of communication (this should be the title!): visual signals, chemical signals, sound signals and language. Be sure to list your sources!

Neat little video on learned behavior and memory just for fun: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Common_Chimpanzee#p00nzs13 (watch Chimp Genius)