Behavioral Adaptations to the Environment
Not what you're looking for?
A psychology student performed an experiment every day over the course of a summer. Dressed in a black-and-white-striped shirt, he visited the football field of a rival school and spread birdseed on the field, blew a whistle, and then left. That fall, for the opening football game at the rival school, a referee walked out on the field, blew his whistle, and hundreds of birds filled the field. The game was postponed for thirty minutes to clear the field of birds. Explain this in terms of behavioral adaptations to an environment.
For each of the following individuals briefly describe the behavioral studies that made them famous: Karl von Fritsch, Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and E.O. Wilson.
What is a fixed action pattern and how does it relate to survival? Give two examples with a brief explanation.
Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary
Behavioral psychologists and their contributions are explained.
Solution Preview
1. This first paragraph is a great example of Pavlov's conditioning. The original experiment was done with a dog. A bell was rung before feeding the dog repeatedly. Before long, whenever a bell was rung, the dog would begin salivating, even when not being fed. In that experiment, the stimulus, which is traditionally food, was changed to a bell. The response was salivating. In the example you gave, the stimulus was the whistle and the response was the birds coming down to feed. Classical conditioning is the behavioral adaptation that can be observed here, and it was an idea first studied by Ivan Pavlov.
2. Karl von Fritsch - did a lot of work and studies related to communication among bees. He hypothesized that animals may use methods that are not understandable to humans, such as making noises in a frequency that is above humans' range of ...
Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
Psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud
This quiz explores the personality theory of psychoanalysis, in particular reference to how Freud conceptualized of this theory.
Emotional Intelligence: A Beginning
An introduction to an emerging branch of Psychology-Emotional Intelligence.
Sigmund Freud
How much do you know about Sigmund Freud's theories? Find out with this quiz!
Can you name these types of cognitive distortions?
In each mini-scenario, can you identify the type of cognitive distortion being displayed? All of us are subject to cognitive errors, biases, and distortions throughout our daily lives.
Developmental Psychology
This quiz explores the concepts, theories and key terminology associated with human psychological development.