Animal Behavior - Biology 4200/5430

Bowling Green State University, Fall 2009

Sample Exam 1

This page contains sample multiple-choice questions and illustrates what type of questions you should expect. Materials contained in the lecture notes and reading assignments are fair game. With adequate preparation and an open mind in lecture you will undoubtedly do well. Assays may contain bullet lists, fully formulated sentences, or a combination of both. If you are not successful in communicating your answers, I must assume that you do not know the answer. A total of 100 points can be achieved in this exam towards the total of 300 points for the lecture and 500 points for the entire course.

Multiple Choice Questions

You will be presented with 20 multiple choice questions. Each problem will be worth 3.5 points for a total of 70 points. The essay problem following this section is worth 30 points. You should plan on saving around 15 minutes for it. Below are a few multiple choice questions which serve as examples. They do not match questions in the exam, they are solely meant to give you an opportunity to practice and review.

1. J.B. Watson's approach to the study of behavior focused primarily on

• learned behaviors
• instinctual behaviors in the natural habitat
• subjective experiences
• sleep disorders
• language learning

2. The term Critical Period in behavior refers to:

• behavior that is linked to a particular time of day
• a stage of life where an individual is especially susceptible to certain learning experiences
• defensive behaviors that occur during a crisis situation
• all of the above
• none of the above

3. ...

Essay Problems:

One of these problems will actually appear on your mid-term examination. The problem will be worth 30 points. If you desire you may work with a classmate to answer the questions outside of class. Neither your instructor nor teaching assistants for the course will discuss your answers to the problems prior to the examination. You should plan on spending around 15 minutes on this section.

1. Describe the procedures involved in classical and operant conditioning. Contrast the similarities and differences between the two procedures.
2. Imprinting is an important ethological concept. Define filial imprinting and discuss the conditions under which such imprinting occurs. Be sure to include the concepts of the sensitive (i.e. critical) period in your answer. What prominent ethologists studied imprinting?
3. A mother attempts to train one of her obstinate sons to hang his coat in the closet when he gets home from school. She gives him a piece of his favorite candy on every occasion that he completes the task successfully. The child does not regularly complete the task after a 3-week training period and she begins to believe that her child is no smarter than the mosquito larvae she worked with in the Biology 420 laboratory. Just as she is ready to give up and let her child do as he pleases she sees her husband giving the child the candy while he and her son are playing a video game on television. Having passed the class she knows instantly why her training procedure failed. What went wrong? What other suggestions might you give the mother to insure that the trained behavior persists after the child learns the task?
4. In spring, red-winged blackbirds setup territories and defend them viciously against any kind of intruder. Considering Tinbergen's 4 aims, what types of questions can be phrased to examine his behavior?
5. What is habituation? What is its functional significance? How would you design an experiment that would allow us to distinguish it from fatigue?
6. Much of what we know about learning of songs by song birds comes from laboratory studies. Describe the development of song in birds, with reference to work done by Peter Marler on white-crowned sparrows. What kind of experimental methods are used to study the process?
7. Describe a behavior with high heritability and discuss the role of genetics in it.