Animal Behavior Screencasts
Summary: Dr. David B. Miller, Professor of Psychology at The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, U.S.A., is joined by Honors students enrolled in his Animal Behavior course for weekly discussions about course content and issues related to animal behavior and ethology.
- Visit Website
- RSS
- Artist: David B. Miller
- Copyright: (c) 2017 David B. Miller
Podcasts:
An examination of technological innovations, old and new, that enable scientists to study animal behavior, including the use of blinds, video & audio aids, fiber optics, micro cameras, and telemetry.
In order to identify actual causal mechanisms of behavior, one must manipulate variables and measure the effects of those manipulations, using proper experimental design. We'll explore how this has been done in both the field and laboratory, including the use of robotics.
When collecting a lot of data, especially in field research, one has to choose a sampling technique because it is not feasible to report all of the raw data points. There are 2 types of sampling: Subject Sampling and Event Sampling. Forms of each of these are discussed in this screencast.
Behaviors typically occur in sequences rather than in isolation. Here, we examine how to look at behavioral sequences using a transition matrix, calculating conditional probabilities, and constructing flow diagrams of the sequences.
An examination of "lumping" (whole-grain behavioral analysis) versus "splitting" (finer-grain analysis of individual components of a whole behavior pattern), with examples of each.
An examination of animal behavior observational research settings based on the degree of control by the investigator, with five points along the continuum and examples of each.
An intensive examination of problems associated with field research, based on personal experience in doing field work in North Carolina, as well as issues involving laboratory research.
An examination of the importance of context on animal behavior, and five roles of naturalistic observation in better understanding animal behavior.
This final "history" episode examines neuroethology, including scanning technology, optogenetics, and behavioral ecology.
Significant influences on the study of animal behavior from Zing-Yang Kuo, T. C. Schneirla, Daniel S. Lehrman, Douglas Spalding, Jakob von Uexküll, Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch.
Contributions by C. Lloyd Morgan, Edward Thorndike, Willard Small, Wolfgang Köhler, John B. Watson, and Karl Lashley, in relation to general principles of animal behavior and later studies.
An examination of Ernst Haeckel's "biogenetic law" (ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny) and Wilhelm Preyer's contribution to behavioral embryology.
How Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, Herbert Spencer, R. A. Fisher, and especially Charles Darwin influenced the development of animal behavior, with special consideration on the theory of evolution and expression of emotions in man and animals.
Hans Bol's mobbing engravings, Descartes' mechanistic views, Leeuwenhoek's microscope coupled with preformation vs. epigenesis, Linneaus, C. F. Wolff, and Karl von Baer contributed to the history of animal behavior.
A brief examination of contributions to the study of animal behavior by Aristotle, Ptolemy II, Zeno, Pliny the Elder, and the Man-Brute Dichotomy of Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas.
