Deck 16: Play

Question 1

Cerebellar synaptogenesis is likely to be one benefit of:

A) object play.
B) locomotor play.
C) social play.
D) object and locomotor play.
E) locomotor and social play.

Answer 1

object and locomotor play.

Question 2

Which of the following statements does NOT relate to "self-handicapping" behavior in animals?

A) Self-handicapping provides young animals the opportunity to recognize that they are involved in play.
B) Self-handicapping is a means by which young individuals gain benefits by cheating during play.
C) Older individuals perform some act at a level well below what they are capable of when playing with young individuals.
D) Older individuals allow younger subordinates to assume the dominant role during play.
E) Self-handicapping occurs during social play.

Answer 2

Older individuals allow younger subordinates to assume the dominant role during play.

Question 3

Siviy's work on play fighting in rats suggests that:

A) play behavior is controlled in part by the parafascicular area of the brain.
B) play behavior is not influenced by brain neurochemistry.
C) neural activity in the parafascicular area of the brain is not related to play fighting.
D) dopamine inhibits play behavior in animals.
E) play may serve as a mechanism for coping with stress throughout development.

Answer 3

play behavior is controlled in part by the parafascicular area of the brain.

Question 4

Greater endurance, increased strength, and increased motor skills have all been proposed as potential benefits of:

A) social play.
B) locomotor play.
C) object play.
D) self-handicapping play.
E) all forms of play.

Question 5

Which of the following statements regarding object play is FALSE?

A) Object play provides many benefits with no associated costs.
B) Juveniles are predicted to engage in more object play than adults.
C) The frequency of object play in cheetah cubs corresponds with the cubs' prey handling efficiency.
D) Adults in species with complex behavioral repertoires may master difficult skills through object play.
E) The types of objects that raven juveniles manipulate influences their reaction to encountering similar items during adulthood.

Question 6

Spinka and his colleagues proposed that play behavior:

A) should have measurable effects on somatosensory, motor, and emotion centers.
B) will not change over the lifetime of an individual, particularly if the frequency of unexpected events changes at a rapid rate.
C) can only be exhibited in animals that live in social groups.
D) allows animals to develop the physical and psychological skills to handle unexpected events in which they experience a loss of control.
E) c and d

Question 7

Which of the following statements applies to Pellis and Iwaniuk's study of play in muriod rodents?

A) Species-specific play fighting complexity scores mapped well onto the muriod rodent phylogeny.
B) Play fighting repertoires could not have evolved independently in different species of muriod rodents over time.
C) Ancestral muriod rodents likely engaged in very simple forms of play.
D) Play behavior can only become less complex over evolutionary time.
E) Male-female association patterns did not correlate well with play complexity.

Question 8

Which of the following functions have been proposed for social play?

A) assists in establishing long-lasting social bonds
B) provides physical skills that could be useful later in life
C) aids in the development of cognitive skills
D) a and c
E) all of the above

Question 9

In Belding's ground squirrels, males engage in:

A) more sexual play than females, but the same level of play fighting as females.
B) less sexual play and more play fighting than females.
C) the same level of both sexual play and play fighting as females.
D) the same level of sexual play as females but less play fighting than females.
E) more sexual play and more play fighting than females.

Question 10

When food availability is low, young squirrel monkeys:

A) increase their time spent playing.
B) decrease their time spent playing.
C) continue to play with the same frequency as when food availability is high.
D) switch from social play to object play.
E) express social play in different ways.

Question 11

Compare and contrast the benefits and costs associated with object, locomotor, and social play. Can you think of any additional benefits and costs of play that were not discussed in this chapter? If so, describe how these benefits and costs might influence play behavior.

Question 12

In the last section of this chapter, you were introduced to phylogenetic analyses of play. Pellis and Iwaniuk's analyses spurred some interesting discussion about the evolution of simple versus complex play. Develop some hypotheses regarding the circumstances under which natural selection might favor simple play and/or complex play. Also, develop hypotheses regarding factors that might constrain the expression of simple and/or complex play. How might you design an experiment to test these hypotheses?

Question 13

Describe Bekoff's (2000) three postulates regarding how young animals distinguish play from nonplay. How do Bekoff's postulates draw on ideas related to both individual and social learning?

Question 14

Read the article by Blumstein and colleagues (2013), "Early Play May Predict Later Dominance Relationships in Yellow-Bellied Marmots (Marmota flaviventris)" (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, vol. 280, article number 20130485). Using this paper as a springboard, how would you go about testing the long-term fitness benefits of play? Why are longitudinal empirical or observational studies important for examining the fitness ramifications of early life play?

Question 15

Read the article by Jones and colleagues (2011) titled "Early Environmental Enrichment Protects Captive-Born Striped Mice against the Later Development of Stereotypic Behaviour" (Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol. 135, pp. 138-145). In this study, early life enrichment suppressed the expression of stereotypic behavior in captive-bred striped mice. However, the authors raise concerns about the generality of these results, particularly because some species respond adversely to early enrichment. Why do you think early enrichment has positive effects on some species and negative effects on others? Do you think it depends on the type of enrichment provided? If so, which aspects of the animals' natural history might provide you with clues about the type of enrichment to provide? Develop some hypotheses regarding the type and relevance of enrichment for your species of choice, and design an experiment to test these hypotheses.