Greg Detre
Monday, 01 October, 2001
What is Hamilton's rule and why is it important? (1999)
Under which
circumstances does infanticide occur? (2000)
Why has inclusive fitness been such an important concept in the study of
animal behaviour? (2000)
To what extent do
Darwinian principles apply to human behaviour? (2000)
Why be monogamous? (1999)
Why do people have children? (1999)
Discuss the factors that influence mating systems in mammals and birds. (2000)
Are the theories about the adaptiveness of behaviour testable? (1999)
What is a
behavioural adaptation? What methods can be used to test adaptive hypotheses?
(2000)
Discuss and illustrate with examples the use of optimality theory in animal behaviour, with special reference to how animals cope with unpredictable environments. (1999)
What is the relation between short-term optimality and long term fitness? (1998)
Write an essay examining the following quote: 'From pregnancy complications, to the stress response, to the beauty of symmetry, to the attraction of money, to the historical tendency of the rich to favour first-born sons, everything we think, feel and do might be better understood as a means to spread our own - or our ancestors' - genes'. (Laura Betzig, 1996). (1998)
What is the relationship between 'evolution', 'learning' and 'development' in the production of behaviour? (1998)
What is evolutionary game theory? Explain the hawk-dove game and the prisoner's dilemma. (1998)
Why be monogamous? (1999)
Why do people have children? (1999)
Discuss the factors that influence mating systems in mammals and birds. (2000)
What exactly is meant by mate 'quality' and do sexual signals reveal it? (1999)
What are the costs and benefits derived from choosing a mate as opposed to mating randomly? (1998)
Can consciousness be investigated scientifically? (1999)
Does complexity of
social behaviour imply complexity of cognitive abilities? (2000)
Discuss the different reasons why so many animals form social groups. (1999)
What is the value
of comparing animals to robots? (2000)
What do animals
learn by imitating members of their own species? (2000)
Is imitation a requisite for cultural transmission? (1999)
Does the behaviour of robots help us to explain the behaviour of animals? (1999)
Write an essay examining the following quote: 'The main force shaping sociality in predators is their prey, and in prey it is their predators'. (1998)
Does the behaviour of robots help us to explain the behaviour of animals? (1999)
What is the value
of comparing animals to robots? (2000)
What exactly is meant by mate 'quality' and do sexual signals reveal it? (1999)
Can consciousness be investigated scientifically? (1999)
Are the theories about the adaptiveness of behaviour testable? (1999)
What is a
behavioural adaptation? What methods can be used to test adaptive hypotheses?
(2000)
What is Hamilton's rule and why is it important? (1999)
To what extent do
Darwinian principles apply to human behaviour? (2000)
How would you
explain the evolution of conspicuous costly signals in animals? (2000)
Do animals deceive each other? (1999)
It is often said that for animal signals to be effective they must be reliable, and to be reliable they must impose a cost (A. Zahavi). Discuss this idea with examples from various taxa. (1998)
Why might it be useful for animals to be able to recognise kin? (1998)
What is the state
of knowledge concerning the 'magnetic compass' in animals? (2000)
In what sense do animals have maps? (1999)
Discuss the various types of homing strategies that occur in the animal kingdom. (1998)
EITHER Critically assess the value of a consumer demand approach on animal welfare. (1998)
OR Why is measuring motivation important to animal welfare? How might motivation be measured? (1998)
How would you convince a sceptic that conservationists need to understand animal behaviour? (1998)
What is frequency
dependent behaviour and what kinds of theories are used to understand it?
(2000)
Discuss what is known about the significance of sensitivity to risk in
animal behaviour, in the sense of stochasticity , variance and uncertainty. (2000)
Define and illustrate the concepts of 'Circadian Rhythms' and 'Interval Timing'. (1998)
consciousness
communication
cognitive
a-life
kin recognition/selection
social learning
optimality
R. Dawkins & Krebs (1978, 1984) in Behavioural Ecology (two editions have different versions) ed. by Krebs and Davies.
M. Dawkins & Guilford (1991) Anim. Behav. 41, 865-
Griffin,
D.R. (1992) Animal Minds Chicago Press (RSL open shelf)
J.R.Krebs and N.B.Davies - An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology
R.Dawkins - The Selfish Gene 2nd ed., The Extended Phenotype
Richard Byrne, The thinking ape � evolutionary history of intelligence
Marc Hauser, Wild minds
Tinbergen�s Four Why�s - where are we now?
Tinbergen, N.
(1963) On aims and methods in Ethology. Z. Tierpsychol. 20, 410-433.
Dawkins, M.S. (1989) The future of Ethology: how
many legs are we standing on? Persp. Ethol. 8, 47-54.
Dewsbury, D.A. (1992) On the problems studied in ethology, comparative psychology, and animal behaviour. Ethology 92, 89-107.
Discuss the evolution of �honesty� and �deceit� in animal
communication.
Wiley (1983) in Animal Behaviour ed,. by Halliday and Slater, Vol.2 Communication.
Axelrod & Hamilton (1981) Science 211, 1390-
R. Dawkins & Krebs (1978, 1984) in Behavioural Ecology (two editions have different versions) ed. by Krebs and Davies.
M. Dawkins & Guilford (1991) Anim. Behav. 41, 865-
Blumberg & Alberts (1992) Anim. Behav. 44, 382-
Dugatkin et al. (1992) Trends Ecol. Evol. 7, 202-
Noe (1990) Animal Behaviour 39, 78-90.
Are non-human animals conscious?
Dawkins,
M.S. (1993) Through Our Eyes Only. Freeman
Byrne,
R. (1995) The thinking ape: evolutionary origins of intelligence. O.U.P.
(Hooke, RSL main library)
Churchland,
P.M. (1995) The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul. M.I.T.
Press (CCC 612.8201Ch)
Griffin,
D.R. (1992) Animal Minds Chicago Press (RSL open shelf)
Kennedy,
J.S. (1992) The New Anthropomorphism CUP. (Hooke, RSL Stack)
Weiskrantz,
L. (1995) The problem of animal consciousness in relation to neurophysiology. Behav.
Brain Res. 71, 171-175.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=JournalURL&_issn=01664328_auth=y&acct=C000010360&_version=1&urlVersion=0&userid=126524&md5=00d2c0d3384311f4447732fd8fa76543)
Discuss the
differences and similarities between genetic algorithms and natural evolution.
Mitchell, M. 1998 An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Levy, S. 1992. Artificial Life � The Quest for a New Creation, Penguin
Ridley, M. 1996. Evolution (2nd ed.), Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.
Anastasoff, S. 1999. Evolving Mutation Rates for the Self-Optimisation of Genetic Algorithms. In Advances in artificial life� : 5th� European Conference, ECAL'99, Lausanne, Switzerland, September, 1999 : proceedings, Floreano, D., Nicoud, J-D., Mondada, F. (eds.), pp. 74-78, Springer Verlag, Berlin.
Why and how do animals recognise their relatives?
see also: Steve Simpson�s reading list
J.R.Krebs and N.B.Davies - An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology
R.Dawkins - The Selfish Gene 2nd ed.
J.L.Hoogland (1983) Nepotism and alarm calling in the black-tailed Prairie dog. Animal Behaviour 31: p.472.
J.Jarvis (1994) Mammalian eusociality: a family affair. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 9(2): 47-51.
J.L.Brown & A.Eklund (1994) Kin recognition and the major histocompatibility complex: an integretarive review. American Naturalist 143: 435-461.
S. Lenington (1994) Of mice, men and the MHC. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9(12)p. 455-456.
What cognitive abilities do
animals really have?
Do animals have a concept of
number?
Do animals have a theory of mind?
Marian Dawkins, Through our eyes only
Richard Byrne, The thinking ape � evolutionary history of intelligence
Marc Hauser, Wild minds
Gould & Gould, The animal mind
Hare et al. (2000), �Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know?�
Povinelli et al. (2000), �Towards a science of other minds: escaping the argument from analogy�
Bloom & German (2000), �Two reasons to abandon the false belief task as a test of the theory of mind�
Daniel C. Dennett, �Do Animals Have Beliefs?�, in Herbert Roitblat, ed., Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Sciences, MIT Press, 1995.
Heyes, C. M. (1998). Theory of mind in nonhuman primates. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21 (1): 101-134.
Do animals behave optimally?
J.R.Krebs and A.Kacelnik (1991)� Decision-making.� In: 'Behavioural Ecology' ed. J.R.Krebs and N.B.Davies. 3rd ed. p.105-136
S.J.Gould and R.C.Lewontin (1979) The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm:� a critique of the adaptationist programme. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B 205: p.581-598.� (Reprinted in 'The Evolution of Adaptation by Natural Selection' edited by J. Maynard Smith and M.Holliday).
M.Dawkins (1986) 'Unravelling Animal Behaviour' Chapter 2.
R.Dawkins (1982) 'The Extended Phenotype'� Chapter 3.
What do animals learn from each other?
eusociality � give up right to reproduce
females are diploid, males are haploid
so if share father, sisters are related to each other by more than own offspring
convergent evolution � eusociality (consequence not cause of sex evolution)
sin of teleology: rat �looking for food� is missile �looking for place� (conflating function with mechanism)
Tinbergen�s famous 1963 article, �On aims and methods of Ethology�, consolidated and redirected ethology along four broad lines: causation (mechanism), survival value (adaptive function), ontogeny (�change of behaviour machinery during development�) and evolution (≈ phylogeny). His guiding aim was to reform Ethology as �the biological study of behaviour�
behaviour as organ = set of mechanisms
evolved to produce a particular consequence
behaviours evolve (like any other phenotype) according to the outcome of possessing the trait
By treating behaviours as organs, we stress to
ourselves that every animal has a varied and extensive arsenal of behaviours,
just as our body harbours many organs, but that these remain largely constant
and fixed across a species, ceteris paribus.
opposite of �innate� is really �environment-induced�
innateness should be demonstrated negatively, that is, by elimination
Shannon - information = probability that observer can predict what comes next
how define honesty?
������ information content of the signal
������ relative to time state (size, species, health etc.) of signaller - semantic
Batesian mimic (edible species is protected by its resemblance to one avoided by predators) - conveying species ID + relevant features
Axelrod + Hamilton � evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS)
if everyone played by given rules, a new mutant couldn't disrupt things � otherwise evolution would produce it
four features that ethologists have identified animals using to increase the reliability of detection, including: redundancy, conspicuousness, possession of small signal repertoires and use of alerting components. The analogies between information transfer in animal communication and in digital signal processing are quite explicit.
exaptation
something there doing some other job, = a bi-product
and becomes the source for future evolution
e.g. sweating has come to mean/signal physiological state
�The utilization of a structure or feature for a function other than that for which it was developed through natural selection.�
evolution + development + culture + learning = 3 cumulative selection processes = exponential processes