| A | B |
|---|
| agonistic behavior | behavior involving a contest of some kind that determines which competitor gains access to some resource |
| altruism | Behavior that reduces an individual’s fitness while increasing the fitness of another individual |
| associative learning | acquired ability to associate one stimulus with another; also called classical conditioning |
| behavioral ecology | heuristic approach based on the expectation that Darwinian fitness (reproductive success) is improved by optimal behavior |
| classical conditioning | association of a normally irrelevant stimulus with a fixed behavioral response |
| coefficient of relatedness | probability that a particular gene present in one individual will also be inherited from a common parent or ancestor in a second individual |
| cognition | ability of an animal’s nervous system to perceive store process and use information obtained by its sensory receptors |
| cognitive ethology | study of the connection between data processing by nervous systems and animal behavior |
| cognitive map | representation within the nervous system of spatial relations between objects in an animal’s environment |
| communication | behavior involving transmission of reception of and response to signals |
| culture | ideas customs skills rituals and similar activities of a people or group that are passed along to succeeding generations |
| ethology | study of animal behavior in natural conditions |
| fixed action pattern (FAP) | sequence of behavioral acts that is essentially unchangeable and usually carried to completion once initiated |
| foraging | behavior necessary to recognize search for capture and consume food |
| game theory | way of thinking about behavioral evolution in situations where the fitness of a particular behavioral phenotype is influenced by other behavioral phenotypes in the population |
| habituation | very simple type of learning that involves a loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no information |
| Hamilton’s rule | principle that for natural selection to favor an altruistic act must exceed the cost to the altruist |
| imprinting | learned behavior with a significant innate component acquired during a limited critical period |
| inclusive fitness | total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing its own offspring |
| innate behavior | developmentally fixed and under strong genetic control |
| kin selection | used to explain altruistic behavior between related individuals |
| kinesis | change in activity or turning rate in response to a stimulus |
| landmark | point of reference for orientation during navigation |
| learning | behavioral change resulting from experience |
| mate-choice copying | individuals in a population copy the mate choice of others |
| monogamous | relationship in which one male mates with just one female |
| operant conditioning | animal learns to associate one of its own behaviors with a reward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavior |
| optimal foraging theory | basis for analyzing behavior as a compromise of feeding costs versus feeding benefits |
| pheromone | volatile chemical that functions in communication and that in animals acts much like a hormone in influencing physiology and behavior |
| polyandry | polygamous mating system involving one female and many males |
| polygamous | relationship in which an individual of one sex mates with several of the other |
| polygyny | polygamous mating system involving one male and many females |
| promiscuous | relationship in which mating occurs with no strong pair-bonds or lasting relationships |
| proximate question | an inquiry that focuses on the environmental stimuli that trigger a particular behavioral act |
| reciprocal altruism | current altruistic individual benefits in the future when the current beneficiary reciprocates |
| sensitive period | limited phase in an individual animal’s development when learning of particular behaviors can take place |
| sign stimulus | external sensory stimulus that triggers a fixed action pattern |
| signal | behavior that causes a change in behavior in another animal |
| social learning | modification of behavior through the observation of other individuals |
| sociobiology | study of social behavior based on evolutionary theory |
| spatial learning | modification of behavior based on experience of the spatial structure of the environment. |
| taxis | movement toward or away from a stimulus |
| ultimate question | inquiry that focuses on the evolutionary significance of a behavioral act |
