History of the Study of Animal Behaviour
Jan 11, 2016
History of the Study of Animal Behaviour
History of Studies of Animal Behaviour
• Scala Naturae (Aristotle)• Evolutionary Approach (J.Lamarck;
C.Darwin)• Ethology (K.Lorenz; N.Tinbergen)• Comparative Psychology (C.Morgan;
E.Thorndike; M.&H.Harlow; K.Lashley)• Sociobiology/Behavioural Ecology
(E.O.Wilson; W.D.Hamilton)
Scala Naturae(the great chain of beings)
<-- Humans
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) Engraving in 1821
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)wedding portrait done in 1841
Evolution according to Lamarck
According to Lamarck, constant use of certain organs led to changes in the organs themselves. For example, stretching of the neck, in the case of the giraffe, led to its gradual lengthening.
Evolution according to Darwin
Darwin maintained that the mechanism of natural selectionwas responsible for the evolutionof longer-necks in giraffes:individuals with longer necks survivedto pass their ‘long-neck’ trait along.
Ethologists Comparative Psychologists
• Evolution, function
• Innate behaviour
• Many species
• Natural habitats
• Species differences
• Mechanisms, development
• Learned behavour
• Few species
• Laboratory
• General laws
The egg retrieval response of the greylag goose
Fixed Action Pattern- a programmed behaviour pattern triggered by a specific environmental stimulus
• It is innate or unlearned
• It is stereotyped
• It is difficult to disrupt
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
A gull attempting to incubate a super-egg instead of her own egg
Clever Hans - a horsewith a head for numbers
Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936)Photograph from ca. 1900
Morgan’s Canon
“In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical faculty if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale.”
(Morgan 1891, p. 53)
Thorndike’s puzzle box
Margaret and Harry Harlow
Mother-Infant Bonding
Primates have a biological need for contact comfort
Karl Lashley attempted to locate the locus of learning in the cerebral cortex
Sociobiology/Behavioural Ecology
Alarm call by a ground squirrel
•Focus on the function of behaviour
•Cost/benefit analysis of the individual acts
•All behaviour is ultimately selfish (it maximizes individual genetic success)