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Assignment: Psychology: Animal Behaviors - Follow- up Assignment
1. One of the concepts that we'll discuss this week is an "honest signal". Honest signals convey accurate information about the sender's quality. These signals are honest because they cannot be faked. A classic example of an honest signal is the peacock's tail feathers. Only a strong and healthy male can produce a fabulous display, so female peacocks can rely on this signal when selecting a mate. Similarly, an antelope that jumps 10 feet into the air is an agile antelope, and a cheetah can rely on this signal when selecting prey. In humans, honest signals would be characteristics (or possessions) that relay generally accurate information about the sender's fertility, wealth, power etc.
For this weeks forum, discuss an honest signal that humans use (describe the signal, explain it's meaning, discuss why it's honest)
Three things to keep in mind:
(1) Intentions are irrelevant. In this class, we are interested in actions, not intentions. When you consider honest signals in humans, you don't need to limit yourself to intentional signals.
(2) The key characteristic of honest signals is that they can't easily be faked. (Before you suggest a particular aspect of body language as an honest signal, consider whether it can be faked.)
(3) You can use signals that were reliable over much of human history as well as signals that are new.
As an example of a previously reliable signal, consider white teeth. White teeth used to be an honest signal of youth and health, and we are attracted to youth because it is correlated with fertility and we are attracted to health because it is correlated with good genes and a lack of contagious diseases. Of course, nowadays we can whiten our teeth, so this is no longer an honest signal, but we still find white teeth attractive. You can use an example like this if you can explain why it used to be an honest signal.
As an example of a currently reliable signal, consider owning a Porsche. Only the very wealthy can afford them, so a Porsche is a pretty reliable signal that the owner has resources.
Comment: These posts need to be in your own words. When you write something like, "This paper seeks to explain signals cues and meaning", I think you may be relying too heavily on a paper for the material in your post. Other clues are the smattering of jargon and the uneven nature of the writing.
Read the questions and comment. Write a response (200 words)
2. Animals use variety of sensory "channels" to communicate, including the visual channel, the auditory channel, the tactile (touch) channel, and the odor channel. What are advantages/disadvantages of each channel? That is, explain why a particular channel would be more advantageous in a particular situation or for a particular kind of message. Consider:
The environment (air, water, underground, in the jungle, in open ground, daytime, nighttime)
The message (should it be public or private: should it travel far and wide, or should it be local? Should it last awhile or be very brief?)
Note: The background material might give you some ideas, but I think you can answer this question just by thinking about it.
Remember: Your task is to come up with one new idea, ideally with an example. There are many channels and many reasons why each one works best in a particular situation, so if you ponder this a bit you will find something new to say. But don't write an essay that attempts to cover everything because that will make it more difficult for your classmates to come up with something new.
Read the question and use your own word, and no cite, write a response (100-200words)
3. The moth/bat video introduced the concept of Batesian mimics. A Batesian mimic species copies the honest signal of another species, called the model. For example, one butterfly species that is not poisonous may mimic the coloration of another butterfly species that is. When birds taste the poisonous model they will learn to avoid it, and they will also avoid the mimic. How does the mimic species affect the fitness of the model species? What will happen if the mimic species is more numerous than the model species?
Read the question and video ,use your own word, and no cite, write the answer.
4. The Introductory Discussion for week 3 asked for your intuitions on whether altruism can be reconciled with natural selection. Your posts were invariably thoughtful, and I gained some insight into your thinking. Those posts, along with the answers to the Checkpoint Question, suggest that I need to better explain why scientists believe that animals do not behave for the "good of their species".
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