Deck 14: Three Levels of Selection: Biology, Behavior, and Culture

Question 1

The ability to have one's behavior strengthened by reinforcement is ______.

A) Heritable
B) Determined
C) Learned
D) Disadvantageous

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The three levels of selection suggested by behavioral researchers are:

A) Natural selection, behavioral selection by reinforcement, and cultural selection
B) Natural selection, sexual selection, and environmental selection
C) Sexual selection, behavioral selection, and natural selection
D) Biological selection, behavioral selection, and group selection

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What are the two major sources of heritable genetic variation?

A) Evolution of phenotypic genes and mutations
B) Phenotypic and genotypic traits
C) An improvement in phenotype and mutations
D) Sexual recombination of genes and mutations

Answer 3

D

Question 4

What allowed for the emergence of human culture?

A) Biological evolution of operant processes
B) Social contingencies of verbal behavior
C) Social signaling by bees
D) Both biological evolution of operant processes and social contingencies of verbal behavior

Question 5

If a population is subjected to extreme temperatures and as a consequence the next generation is more weather resistant, _____ has occurred.

A) Phylogeny
B) Environmental determinism
C) Evolution
D) Genetic determinism

Question 6

An organism's ____ refers to their genetic make-up.

A) Genotype
B) Phylogeny
C) Phenotype
D) Behavioral history

Question 7

Scheller and Axel (1984) found biological evidence that:

A) The egg-laying sequence in marine snails can be changed through operant conditioning
B) The egg-laying sequence in marine snails is caused by the prefrontal cortex and conscious choice
C) The brain stem causes neurons to fire making the egg-laying sequence in marine snails possible
D) Gene sites release peptides that cause the egg-laying sequence in marine snails

Question 8

According to behavior analysts, _____ is adjusting behavior on the basis of past experience.

A) Behavioral flexibility
B) Adaptation
C) Learning
D) Behavioral history

Question 9

An organism's _____ refers to all the characteristics observed during the lifetime of an individual.

A) Genotype
B) Phylogeny
C) Phenotype
D) Genetics

Question 10

Two major sources of genetic variation are mutations and _______.

A) Social pressure
B) Sexual recombination
C) Random novelty
D) Phenotypic genes

Question 11

The behavior of invertebrates such as Aplysia is totally:

A) Controlled by genes
B) Reflexive
C) Learned
D) None of these

Question 12

Operant behaviors are selected by ______.

A) Choice
B) Cognitions
C) Chromosomes
D) Consequences

Question 13

The single common principle operating at the level of biology, behavior, and culture is ________.

A) Survival of the fittest
B) Selection by consequences
C) Phylogenetic contingencies
D) Selection by design

Question 14

_____ is(are) the evolutionary history of a species.

A) Genetics
B) Phylogeny
C) Sexual selection
D) Natural selection

Question 15

Social signaling is:

A) Mostly genetically regulated in bees
B) Sometimes due to reinforcement
C) May involve stimulus equivalence in humans
D) All of these

Question 16

At what level(s) do/does selection by consequences occur?

A) Behavioral
B) Cultural
C) Biological
D) All of these

Question 17

Egg laying in Aplysia is an example of ______.

A) Genetic control of behavior
B) Basic instincts
C) Released action patterns
D) Environmental control of behavior

Question 18

From a behavioral standpoint natural selection:

A) Is secondary to behavioral selection
B) Involves contingencies of survival that determine behaviors that aided in survival and reproduction
C) Involves contingencies of reproduction that determine which genes will be passed on
D) Is irrelevant to the formation of behavior

Question 19

On most occasions mutations produce features that _____.

A) Work for an organism's survival and reproductive success
B) Neither harm nor improve the chances for an organism
C) Work against and organism's survival and reproductive success
D) Are correctable through phenotypic compensation

Question 20

Natural selection involves ______.

A) Reproductive diversity
B) Differential reproduction
C) Ontogenetic adaptation
D) Genetic variation

Question 21

A scientific challenge in providing a full evolutionary explanation for the complex dance that worker bees perform is:

A) Accounting for the occurrence of the behavior before other bees responded to it
B) Explaining why experienced foragers leave even before the dance is finished
C) How bees adjust for changes in the position of the sun as they dance
D) Variations in the dance based on the bees habitat

Question 22

The single common principle operating at the level of biology, behavior, and culture is:

A) Selection by design
B) Survival of the fittest
C) Phylogenetic contingencies
D) Selection by consequences

Question 23

Pierce (1991) described the power of a _____ in a troop of baboons that were taught to avoid a more appetizing banana in favor of a less appetizing chow.

A) Cultural norm
B) Self-governed rule
C) Cultural taboo
D) Verbal operant

Question 24

Osgood (1953) observed infant babbling and found that:

A) Babbling included all of the speech sounds used in languages across the globe
B) Babbling is generally limited to a small range of sounds
C) Babbling occurs more in hearing infants than those with hearing loss
D) Babbling is not sensitive to feedback from parents

Question 25

Hirsch and McCauley's selection in flies for the ability to be conditioned to extend their proboscis when water is applied to their feet demonstrated that:

A) A reflex cannot be conditioned but can be mated out of the population
B) Operant and respondent processes are separate and cannot be conditioned simultaneously
C) Conditioning of a reflex has a range of variability
D) An operant behavior can only be successfully conditioned in conjunction with a respondent behavior

Question 26

In terms of selection, operants are selected by ______ and cultural practices are selected by ______.

A) Metacontingencies; natural selection
B) Natural selection; metacontingencies
C) Natural selection; contingencies of reinforcement
D) Contingencies of reinforcement; metacontingencies

Question 27

Experiments using costly punishment procedures with the ability to communicate generally find that:

A) The availability to punish others increases cooperation
B) The use of punishment erodes prior cooperative agreements
C) People who punish generally contribute more to the group pool overall
D) Punishment with communication led to greater cooperative behavior

Question 28

Gruber and colleagues' (2009) work with chimps involving a deep drilled hole filled with honey found that chimps from the troops that usually used leaves to obtain food used _____ in the new context, while chimps that that usually used sticks used ______ in the new context.

A) Leaves; sticks
B) Their fingers; their fingers
C) Sticks; sticks
D) Leaves; leaves

Question 29

A male stickleback fish becomes aggressively territorial when exposed to a stimulus such as ____________

A) A male stickleback with a red underbelly swims by
B) A cigar-shaped object with a red dot on the underside moves by
C) A male stickleback with its underbelly covered swims by
D) Both a and a

Question 30

At what levels does selection by consequences occur?

A) Cultural
B) Biological
C) Behavioral
D) All of the above

Question 31

Thomas Edison's "trial and success" approach to inventing can be described as a product of:

A) Punishment
B) Reinforcement
C) Extinction
D) Stimulus control

Question 32

The Gomeros in the Canary Islands are an example of:

A) The relationship between rule-governed behavior and the interaction with verbal behavior
B) Respondent conditioning creating diverse verbal behavior
C) How people speak depends on the verbal contingencies as arranged by topography of the terrain
D) Natural selection choosing individuals with stronger vocal capacities based on the terrain

Question 33

Which of the following is least likely to be a reason that a cultural practice remains stable even after the environmental demands that produced it are no longer present?

A) The cultural practice interferes with contacting new contingencies of reinforcement
B) Conforming to the cultural practice is reinforced by metacontingencies
C) The behavior has come under genetic control
D) There are no natural punishers for engaging in the cultural practice

Question 34

Respondent and operant conditioning are learning processes that:

A) Are products of the organisms individual learning history
B) Are genetically determined
C) Are most evolutionary beneficial in stable environments
D) All of the above

Question 35

Epigenetic studies with carpenter ants showed that major ants given HDAC inhibitors

A) Showed less foraging behavior
B) Were less aggressive
C) Showed increased foraging behavior
D) Showed decreases in aggression

Question 36

Mery and Kawecki's (2002) artificial selection study, in which flies that retained an association between place and a particular chemical for several hours were selectively bred with each other, provided evidence that:

A) Learning ability is genetically primed
B) Learning ability is insensitive to genetic changes
C) Learning ability fluctuates across the lifespan
D) Learning ability predicts reproductive success

Question 37

Sigrid Glenn (1991) argues that a major evolutionary advantage of operant learning is that:

A) Operant learning is more malleable than respondent conditioning
B) Genes for operant learning are less cumbersome than having genes for many complex behavior patterns
C) Genes for operant learning allow the organism to rapidly change behaviors as the environment changes
D) Operant learning allows access to epigenetic changes that enhance complex behavior patterns

Question 38

Which of the following is not one of the rules used in McDowell's theory of behavior dynamics?

A) A selection rule
B) A reproduction rule
C) A learning rule
D) A mutation rule

Question 39

At the behavioral level, the unit of selection is the _____.

A) Reinforcement
B) Operant
C) Punishment
D) Respondent

Question 40

A macrocontingency is

A) When the behavior of multiple people produces a cumulative effect for the group, only with explicit interlocking contingencies
B) When the behavior of multiple people produces a cumulative effect for the group, without any explicit interlocking contingencies
C) When the behavior of an individual produces a cumulative effect for the group
D) When the behavior of a group produces a greater cumulative effect for an individual member of the group