The final exam is a comprehensive test worth 20% of your course grade. You are responsible for all materials covered in lectures, as well as readings in your text, group discussions, and topics related to laboratory exercises. For the papers we discussed in class, you should be familiar with the basic findings and approaches used, along with figures and their interpretation. The exam format will be similar to the midterms: The first questions will be short-answer, general information questions to determine overall understanding of terms and concepts. The second set of questions will be half-page essay questions that require original, critical thinking, or interpretation of figures. The final set of questions are page-long essays that may require some quantitative/mathematical manipulation of ideas developed in the course.

Although a cumulative exam requires a extensive review of course materials, you should focus on synthesis.... that is, strive to understand how material learned during one part of the course relates to ideas learned at other times... Remember, the ultimate goal of this course is to understand why animals behave as they do... both from a proximate and an ultimate perspective. In addition to the two study guides that were provided before each midterm (links below), I've outlined many of the major themes from this term's course below... The material covered since the last mid-term is highlighted in bold.  You should understand the concepts that underlie all of these themes and be able to give examples of real animals when appropriate.  

Study guide for first midterm

Study guide for second midterm

A very coarse overview of the course:

First third: Proximate studies of animal behavior.

How do animals behave in general?

Understand:

a) the mechanics of stimulus detection using various sensory modalities...

b) how signals are relayed and processed within an animal

c) what influences the response of animals given the potential reception of a variety of stimuli.

d) "Nature vs nurture" concepts

The adaptiveness of "innate" behavior.

The adaptiveness of "learned" behavior.

How and why do animals communicate?

Understand:

a) the definition of communication

b) the evolutionary principles that underlie honest vs deceitful signalling.

 

Last two thirds of the course: Ultimate studies of behavior.

Behavior and dispersion:

The costs and benefits of group living

"Active" vs. "passive" concepts

Grouping and finding food

Grouping and avoiding being food.

The costs and benefits of spreading out.

Territory economics

Group territoriality

Behavior and social organization

The role of the evolution of sexual reproduction, anisogamy, and life history in shaping social behaviors.

Mating system evolution

Types of mating systems

Taxonomic patterns

The evolution of parental care

Types of parental care

Taxonomic patterns

The link between parental care and mating system evolution

 

Cooperative behaviors... what factors contribute to:

Cooperation arising from Mutualism

recognize that many types of social interactions, including active models of grouping, that fit into this category of cooperation. Interspecific symbioses are, as well.

Cooperation that appears to be altruistic

What is "altruism"

Phenotypic (or apparent) altruism vs Genotypic (or true) altruism (which relies on group selection arguments)

How do the following examples of "phenotypic" altruism relate to larger concepts of cooperation?

Kin selection

understand basic patterns of relatedness for diploid (e.g., human) and haplo-diploid (bees, ants, etc) organisms

know how to calculate a measure of gene sharing (r) from a pedigree for diploid organisms

know what basic conditions are necessary for kin selection to be an evolutionary factor - see "Hamilton's rule", pg 313 in text

Reciprocal altruism

know what defines reciprocal altruism

know the conditions necessary for reciprocity to evolve, including the basic game theory approach to the "Prisoner's dilemma" - pg 337 in text

understand the releveance of "tit for tat" strategies in producing stable reciprocity systems

understand the ecological conditions that would promote reciprocity and why these might also promote kin-based cooperative behavior

Exploitation or "manipulation"

recognize the role of despotism by dominant individuals and how subordinates may be forced to "cooperate" to make the best of a bad situation.

think about how the expression of dominance may "skew" benefits of group living to higher ranking individuals and what might limit the extent to which one individual dominates another.

The evolution of highly advanced (eusocial) behaviors (see lecture outline for details)

Know the three aspects of social behavior that characterize true eusociality

Understand the difference between Familial vs Colonial routes to the evolution of eusocial behavior as well as their prevalence in nature.

 

We also examined briefly examined human sociobiology - Material from that lecture will not be directly assessed on the final exam.  You are responsible for the papers that we read for this topic and should be familiar with the associated approaches that were used to examine human social behavior by the authors.

GOOD LUCK!