Study Assignments!

Assignment #1

Lab 11: Animal Behavior

In this lab, detailed observations of an organism’s behavior are made.  This serves as the basis for formulating a hypothesis and designing an experiment to test the hypothesis.  This is good practice for designing a controlled experiment.

In one exercise, pillbugs (roly-polies) are placed in a “choice chamber” with one half lined with dry filter paper and the other half lined with wet filter paper.  Many students hypothesize that because pillbugs are crustaceans respire through gills, they will be found more often in the moist chamber.

Realize that this experiment is not controlled.  Write an essay in relation  to designing a controlled experiment in which you identify the hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, confounding variables, and how to control for these  confounding variables. Also, explain the elements in this experiment in regards to chi square analysis and what p-value qualifies the results of the experiment to be statistically significant. REMEMBER DON'T JUST LIST KEY TERMS; REMEMBER TO EXPLAIN THEM AS WELL!!!

Assignment #2

AP Biology Sample Lab Data

This experiment involves the fruit fly Drosophila Melanogaster which is a popular laboratory organism.

In this experiment, fruit flies were placed into a choice chamber with moist cotton balls on either side to act as a control.  Then, another group of fruit flies were placed into a choice chamber with a moist cotton ball on side A and a cotton ball soaked in vinegar on side B.  The number of fruit flies on each side after 5 minutes is represented in the table below:

	Flies on Side A	Flies on Side B
Control Group	18	22
Experimental Group	24	16

Write a Lab Report based on this data.  In the Introduction, you must use the terms Drosophila Melanogaster, choice camber, positive chemotactic response, negative chemotactic response.

Assignment #3

Review Questions

For questions 7–10, please use the following answers:

1. When horses hear an unusual noise, they turn their ears toward the sound. This is an example of
   1. a fixed-action pattern.
   2. habituation.
   3. associative learning.
   4. imprinting.
   5. kinesis.
2. Why do animal behaviorists have to account for a habituation period when undertaking an observational study?
   1. They have to make sure that the study animals do not imprint on them.
   2. They have to wait until their presence no longer affects the behavior of the animals.
   3. The animals need a period of time to learn to associate the observer with data collection.
   4. Before insight learning can be observed, the animals must practice.
   5. The animals must remain cautious of the observer at all times.
3. Which of the following is an example of an agonistic behavior?
   1. A subordinate chimpanzee grooms a dominant chimpanzee
   2. Two lionesses share a fresh kill
   3. A female wolf regurgitates food for her nieces and nephews
   4. A blackbird approaches and takes the feeding position of another blackbird, causing it to fly away
   5. Two fish in a stream pass each other without changing course
4. In which of the following dyads do we expect not to see any altruistic behavior?
   1. Two sisters who are allies.
   2. Two half-brothers.
   3. Two individuals migrating in opposite directions.
   4. Two group members who have frequent conflicts and reconciliations.
   5. Two adolescents who are likely to eventually transfer into the same group.
5. Which of the following is not a requirement for reciprocal altruism to occur?
   1. Ability to recognize the other individual
   2. Long lifespan
   3. Opportunity for multiple interactions
   4. Good long-term memory
   5. High coefficient of relatedness
6. A female tamarin monkey licks her wrists, rubs them together, and then rubs them against a nearby tree. What kind of communication is the probably an example of?
   1. Chemical
   2. Visual
   3. Auditory
   4. Territorial
   5. Tactile
   1. Fixed-action pattern
   2. Habituation
   3. Imprinting
   4. Associative learning
   5. Operant conditioning
7. This type of learning is the lack of responsiveness to unimportant stimuli that do not provide appropriate feedback.
8. Trial-and-error learning important to animals displaying aposometric coloration.
9. Process by which animals associate one stimulus with another.
10. Innate behavior that is learned during a critical period in life.

Answers and Explanations

1. A—This is a fixed-action pattern—an innate behavior that is a programmed response to a stimulus that appears to be carried out without any thought by the organisms involved.
2. B—If the scientist does not allow for a period of habituation, the behavioral observations will be inaccurate since the behavior of the animal will be altered by the presence of the scientist.
3. D—An agonistic behavior is a contest of intimidation and submission where the prize is a desired resource. In this case, the resource is the feeding position.
4. C—Altruistic behavior cannot be expected from two migrating individuals for a couple of reasons: (a) there is no reason for either of them to believe that they will see the other in the future, taking the "If I help them now, perhaps they will help me sometime in the future" element out of play; and (2) if they are migrating in different directions, it is reasonably likely that they are probably not related, which takes the "I'll help because it'll increase the chance more of my genes get passed along" element out of play.
5. E—Reciprocal altruism need not occur between related individuals.
6. A.
7. B.
8. E.
9. D.
10. C.