Alec Pinchak

9/3/09
1985 Essay Question

A sign stimulus is an external sensory stimulus that triggers a fixed action pattern.

Nikolaas Tinbergen studied the fixed action patterns in the male three-spined stickleback

fish. It attacks other males that invade its nesting territory. Tinbergen discovered that the

color red is a key component of the sign stimulus releasing aggression in the male

sticklebacks.

Imprinting is a type of behavior that includes both learning and innate

components and is generally irreversible. The sensitive period is a limited phase in an

animal’s development that is the only time when certain behaviors can be learned; this is

how imprinting is distinguished from other types of learning. During the period of

bonding, the young imprint on their parents and learn the basic behaviors of their species.

In the 1930s, there was an experiment done by Konrad Lorenz in which incubator-

hatched goslings of the graylag geese imprinted on Lorenz rather than the goose after

sending their first few hours with him. The goslings followed him showing no signs of

recognition of their own species or the biological mother.

Communication is the transmission of, reception of, and response to signals.

Many animals have energy efficient signals. For example, a common signal between

territorial fish is to erect their fins, which gives them a larger profile and is generally

enough to drive off an intruding fish. Animals communicate using visual, auditory,

chemical, tactile, and electrical signals. The type of signal used depends on the lifestyle

and environment a animal is living in.