BIO152H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Classical Conditioning, Reciprocal Altruism, Kin Selection
Document Summary
Learning: modification of behavior based on specific experiences. Classical condition: arbitrary stimulus becomes associated with a particular outcome. In operant conditioning, an animal first leans to associate a behavior with a reward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavior. Cognition: process of knowing that involves awareness, reasoning, recollection and judgment. Problem solving varies with individual experience and abilities. For example: a young chimpanzee learns how to crack oil palm nuts by observing an experienced elder. Altruism: behavior that reduces an animals" individual fitness a behavior that reduces an animal"s fitness, but increases the fitness of another individual. The workers are sterile and never reproduce. They labor on behalf of a single fertile queen. The workers sting intruders defends the hive, but the workers die. Three key variables in an act of altruism: benefit to the recipient, cost to the altruist, coefficient of relatedness rb > c hamilton"s rule.
