Core Concepts in Animal Behavior – Winter 2011 03/08/2011
|
Michael
Beecher Professor
of Psychology & Biology Guthrie 327, 543-6545 beecher@uw.edu |
PSYCH 502, 3 credits (graded) Tues Thurs 11:00-12:20 – Guthrie
315 http://courses.washington.edu/ccab/
We
will discuss the major concepts and research approaches in the contemporary
study of animal behavior. We will focus on topics that lie at the interface of
animal behavior, evolutionary biology, neurobiology and psychology. The course
will be taught at two levels: first an introduction to each topic, followed by
in-depth discussion and analysis centering on primary-source readings.
Course
requirements and student responsibilities: The focus of the course is on
problem areas that are central to the study of animal behavior. There are more
core concepts than there are days in this course, however, and so once we are
past the truly core areas at the beginning of the course, we will slant the
rest of the course towards topics that are of particular interest to the
participants. Generally Tuesdays will be ‘lecture’ days (peppered with
discussion) in which MB (or a guest faculty speaker or occasionally a senior
graduate student) gives his take on the historical and theoretical basis for
the question; we will read one or two seminal papers on the topic (sometimes
golden oldies, sometimes hot new papers). Generally Thursdays will stick with
the problem area but focus more narrowly on a particular research and/or
theoretical approach, again with a particular one or two papers we'll read;
Thursdays will be led by one or two students in the class. Each paper will be
discussed in seminar format, with the discussion leader/s responsible for (1)
summarizing and (2) preparing questions for each original paper. Because this
is a graduate course, there will be no exams, but the other side of the coin is
that the student’s presence and active participation are de rigueur. The major
end requirement of the course will be an optional paper or grant proposal
centering on one of the research areas discussed during the course. Because its
difficult to write and complete such a paper or proposal within the 11-week
quarter, I will give the student to the end of spring quarter if s/he chooses.
Alternatively, the student can fulfill the grade requirement by taking charge
of two seminar presentations and extra-diligent participation in the other
sessions. We solicit additional topic suggestions from the participants, the
only requirement being that the topic can be reasonably viewed as a "core
concept" in this very broad field. We'll winnow the list down to our top
10 or so (roughly one for each week of the quarter). Thus the final selection
of topics will take on the flavor of the particular interests of the folks who
enroll in the class.
________________________________________
Schedule
|
|
Date |
Topic |
|
Point person |
|
1 |
Jan 04 |
Prehistory
(to ~1960) |
|
Mike |
|
|
Jan 06 |
History
(since ~1960) |
Mike |
|
|
2 |
Jan 11 |
Altruism
& Kin Selection 1 |
Mike |
|
|
|
Jan 13 |
Altruism
& Kin Selection 2 |
Tom Mike |
|
|
3 |
Jan 18 |
Altruism
& Reciprocity 1 |
Mike |
|
|
|
Jan 20 |
Altruism
& Reciprocity 2 |
Çaglar
& Adrienne |
|
|
4 |
Jan 25 |
Sexual
Selection 1 |
Mike |
|
|
|
Jan 27 |
Sexual
Selection 2 |
Jessica &
Jay |
|
|
5 |
Feb 01 |
Eusociality
1 |
Sean |
|
|
|
Feb 03 |
Eusociality
2 |
Tom |
|
|
6 |
Feb 08 |
Communication
1 |
Mike |
|
|
|
Feb 10 |
Communication
2 |
Anton |
|
|
7 |
Feb 15 |
Genes
& Behavior 1 |
Mike |
|
|
|
Feb 17 |
Genes
& Behavior 2 |
Ashwin |
|
|
8 |
Feb 22 |
Animal
Mind 1 |
Mike
& Robyn |
|
|
|
Feb 24 |
Animal
Mind 2 |
Anton |
|
|
9 |
Mar 01 |
Evolutionary
Psychology 1 |
Mike |
|
|
|
Mar 03 |
Evolutionary
Psychology 2 |
Adrienne
& Ashwin |
|
|
10 |
Mar 08 |
Evol
Psych – Neuro segue |
Robyn |
|
|
|
Mar 10 |
Neuroethology |
Jay
& Jess |
A
Reading List (its incomplete, and only goes to ~ 2007)
Altruism & Kin Selection
Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation
and Natural Selection, Princeton University Press (chapt 1)
Wynne-Edwards, V., Maynard Smith, J., &
Perrins, C. (1964). Group
selection and kin selection; Survival of young swifts in relation to brood-size.
Nature 201: 1145-1149.
Krebs, J. R. & Davies, N. B. (1981). pp 14-18
in An
Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, Blackwell (3rd edition 1993).
Emlen, S.T., Wrege, P.W., and
Shier, D. M. (2006). Effect
of family support on the success of translocated black-tailed prairie dogs.
Conservation Biology 20: 1780-1790.
Manning, C. J., Wakeland, E. K. & Potts,
W. K. (1992). Communal
nesting patterns in mice implicate MHC genes in kin recognition. Nature 360: 581-583.
Altruism & Reciprocity
Wilkinson, G. S. (1984). Reciprocal food sharing in the vampire bat. Nature 308:
181-184.
* Wilkinson, G. S. (1990). Food
sharing in vampire bats. Scientific American.
Bshary, R. (2002). Biting cleaner fish use
altruism to deceive image-scoring client reef fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 269: 2087-2093.
*Bshary, R. & D'Souza, A. (2005). Cooperation in
communication networks: indirect reciprocity in interactions between clearner
fish and client reef fish. In McGregor, P. K., Animal Communication Networks.
*Rutte, C. & Taborsky, M. (2007). Generalized
reciprocity in rats. PLoS Biology
5: 1421-1425.
Henzi,
S. P. & Barrett, L. (2002). Infants
as a commodity in a baboon market. Animal Behaviour 63: 915-921.
*Gumert, M. D. (2007). Payment for sex in a
macaque mating market. Animal
Behaviour 74: 1655-1667.
Sexual Selection
Andersson, M. (1982). Female
choice selects for extreme tail length in a widowbird. Nature 299: 818-820.
Wilkinson & Reillo (1994). Female
choice response to artificial selection on an exaggerated male trait in a
stalk-eye fly. Proceedings of the
Royal Society B 255: 1-6.
Murphy (2010). Tail-racket removal
increases hematocrit in male turquoise-browed motmots. Journal of Ornithology 151: 241-245
Eusociality
Alexander, R. D. (1974). The
evolution of social behavior. Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics
5: 325-383.
*Suryanarayanan, S., Hermanson, J. C. & Jeanne, R. L. (2011). A
mechanical signal biases caste development in a social wasp. Current Biology 21: 1-5.
Communication
Searcy, W. A. & Nowick, S. (2005). “Introduction”
from The Evolution of Animal Communication: Reliability and Deception in
Signaling Systems.
Ryan, M. J. (1991). Sexual selection and communication in frogs. Trends in Ecology
& Evolution 6: 351-356.
*Dawkins, R. & Krebs, J. R.
(1978). Animal signals: Information or manipulation. In J. R. Krebs & N. B.
Davies (eds.), Behavioural Ecology : An Evolutionary Approach. Sinauer.
**Kimball, R. T., Braun, E. L.,
Ligon, J. D., Lucchini, V. & Randi, E. (2001). A
molecular phylogeny of the peacock-pheasants (Galliformes: Polyplectron spp.) indicates loss and reduction of ornamental
traits and display behaviours.
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 73: 187-198.
**Ron, S. R. (2008). The evolution
of female mate choice for complex calls in tungara frogs. Animal Behaviour 76: 1783-1794.
**Meyer, A., Morrissey, J. M. & Schartl, M. (1994). Recurrent
origin of a sexual selected trait in Xiphophorus
fishes inferred from a molecular phylogeny. Nature 368: 539-542.
Maestripieri, D. & Roney,
J. R. (2005). Primate copulation calls and postcopulatory female choice.
Behavioral Ecology 16: 106-113.
*Pradhan, G. R., Engelhardt, A., van Schaik, C. P. & Maestripieri,
D. (2006). The
evolution of female copulation calls in primates: a review and a new model.
Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology
59: 333-343.
**Alan Grafen’s ppt on the
handicap model:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~grafen/LectPres/handicaps.ppt
**See also Carl Bergstrom’s
web module on honest signalling:
http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/handicap/honest_biology_1a.html
Genes and Behavior