Deck 8: Primate Life Histories and the Evolution of Intelligence

Question 1

The extent to which selection favors a strategy in which an animal makes an investment is determined by

A) senescence.
B) the cost of the investment alone.
C) the benefit derived from the investment alone.
D) the net benefit (benefit minus cost) of the strategy.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Why does senescence occur?

A) Because of the relative magnitude of the benefits that animals can derive from current reproduction versus from living longer.
B) Because things must eventually wear down, like the transmission on a car.
C) Because everything must grow old and die as a part of the cycle of life.
D) As yet there is no good Darwinian explanation for this.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is the fundamental evolutionary trade-off between variables that constrains reproduction in mammals?

A) Number of estrous cycles versus female's life span
B) Number of adult males versus number of adult females in a group.
C) Sex ratio of offspring versus quantity of offspring
D) Quality versus quantity of offspring

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Selection is likely to favor fast/short life histories in species

A) that suffer intense predation pressure.
B) that experience a juvenile phase.
C) whose members are able to invest more energy in growth and maintenance.
D) that are subjected to severe competition for nutritional resources needed for reproduction.

Question 5

The neocortex ratio

A) includes the entire hindbrain.
B) is the neocortex volume compared to brain volume.
C) is the comparison of brain to body size.
D) is the comparison of neocortex size to body size.

Question 6

Resource competition is an example of an environmental condition that influences

A) predator avoidance.
B) mating patterns.
C) life history traits.
D) secondary sex characteristics.

Question 7

Organisms that reproduce early tend to have

A) large body size and small brains.
B) short gestation times and large litters.
C) high rates of mortality and long life spans.
D) low rates of mortality and short life spans.

Question 8

Some mammals give birth to one offspring at a time, and others to larger litters. Since more offspring per birth could mean higher reproductive success, why doesn't natural selection favor large litters in all mammals?

A) Natural selection does this; most mammals will eventually evolve the ability to have multiple offspring per litter.
B) The number of offspring per litter has no effect on reproductive success because in most cases only one survives anyway.
C) Reproducing involves a number of trade-offs, including quantity (number) versus quality of offspring. Larger litters mean lower-quality individual offspring.
D) It is not possible to change the number of offspring per litter in mammals; all mammals have about the same number of offspring.

Question 9

Why does natural selection favor alleles that kill individuals late in life?

A) Because genes eventually mutate and grow old, so the elderly must perish to increase group fitness
B) Because natural selection favors young alleles for reproduction
C) Because individual fitness is determined early in life
D) Because genes that enhance early fertility at the cost of a shortened life span increase individual fitness

Question 10

A key derived primate trait is a relatively large brain relative to body size, with humans having among the largest. How much metabolic energy do human brains consume in a day?

A) 15%
B) 20%
C) 25%
D) 30%

Question 11

Ecological hypotheses about the evolution of intelligence include the ability to

A) allocate investment to many offspring.
B) use complex behavior to acquire or access hard-to-find or extracted food.
C) enter into reciprocal relationships with conspecifics.
D) understand how dominance influences access to food.

Question 12

Which of the following statements about social hypotheses for the evolution of intelligence in primates is NOT true?

A) In larger groups, competition for food, mates, grooming partners, and other valuable resources selects for intelligence.
B) In many primates, formation of social bonds used in coalitions, exchange networks, and access to resources selects for intelligence.
C) The stresses of keeping track of social relationships in large groups select for intelligence in monkeys that live in large groups.
D) The great apes are the most intelligent, have the largest brains, and live in the largest and most complex social groups.

Question 13

If predation pressure is very high, we can expect that natural selection favors animals with

A) long life histories.
B) slow life histories.
C) intermediate life histories.
D) fast life histories.

Question 14

Which of the following factors is hypothesized to contribute to the intelligence of primates?

A) Teaching behaviors to others
B) Provisioning
C) Competitive pressures produced by sociality
D) Manually manipulating food

Question 15

The area of the brain that is most closely associated with problem solving and behavioral flexibility is the

A) neocortex.
B) executive brain.
C) brain stem.
D) hippocampus.

Question 16

Animals that reproduce at later ages have

A) smaller brain and body sizes.
B) longer gestation times.
C) shorter life spans and higher rates of mortality.
D) a menopausal stage.

Question 17

All things being equal, fast maturation and early reproduction are advantageous because

A) they increase the length of the reproductive life span.
B) they increase generation time.
C) they result in a juvenile stage.
D) they give offspring a longer learning period.

Question 18

Animals with long life histories, like primates, grow for a long time at the expense of their

A) later fertility.
B) early fertility.
C) later growth.
D) early growth.

Question 19

One model of the evolution of intelligence proposes that the primate brain was selected to facilitate behavioral flexibility. This model relates to

A) social challenges.
B) foraging challenges.
C) mating challenges.
D) ranging challenges.

Question 20

The neocortex ratio in primates is positively correlated with

A) tool use.
B) activity pattern.
C) the extent of leaves in the diet.
D) group size.

Question 21

A link between social complexity and cognitive ability is predicted using

A) a standardized measurement of cognition.
B) absolute forebrain size.
C) absolute neocortex size.
D) a standardized measure of group size.

Question 22

In a playback experiment in which female baboons listened to a recording of a female's grunt followed by another female's submissive fear barks,

A) females responded more strongly when they heard a higher-ranking female responding submissively to a lower-ranking female's grunt.
B) females responded more strongly when they heard high-ranking females in conflict with each other.
C) females reacted to each vocalization regardless of the rank of those making the call.
D) females only reacted to the vocalizations of female kin.

Question 23

When forming coalitions, monkeys

A) enlist only the physically largest group members as allies.
B) will act altruistically on behalf of allies.
C) respond positively only if it is beneficial to them.
D) choose lower-ranked animals to help them.

Question 24

The behavior of the great apes

A) fits the social intelligence hypothesis very well.
B) includes tool use and foraging on foods that are difficult to process.
C) requires living in large groups.
D) is more socially complex than monkeys.

Question 25

Primates who understand the nature of third-party relationships may

A) have a good idea about who will support them in a conflict.
B) enlist aid from the most dominant male in the group.
C) follow basic social rules, including supporting subordinates against dominants.
D) recruit allies who are close to their opponents.

Question 26

The ecological hypothesis that seeks to explain the evolution of large brains in monkeys and apes considers which of the following to be the driving selection pressure favoring large brains?

A) Folivory
B) Frugivory
C) Extractive foraging
D) Learning

Question 27

When comparing the abilities of 2-year-old humans with chimpanzees and orangutans of all ages, researchers concluded that humans and great apes differ in terms of tasks that involve

A) physical cognition.
B) social cognition.
C) the ecological world.
D) morphological characteristics.

Question 28

In one study of capuchin monkeys, researchers found that capuchins follow basic rules when they form coalitions. The rules include which of the following?

A) Males support each other against females.
B) Dominants are supported against subordinates.
C) Individuals intervene only when the ally outwits both individuals.
D) Individuals support members of the same matriline.

Question 29

Large brains may have initially evolved in monkeys and apes because they

A) are more folivorous than their ancestors.
B) have greater dexterity in their hands than their ancestors.
C) are more likely to live in variable environments than their ancestors.
D) have larger social groups than their ancestors.

Question 30

The executive brain ratio is closely linked to

A) home range size.
B) nocturnal activity patterns.
C) forms of tool use.
D) the amount of fruit in the diet.

Question 31

Effective deception requires

A) ecological knowledge.
B) a theory of mind.
C) associative learning.
D) a large neocortex.

Question 32

Which of the following hypotheses does not explain ape brain size well?

A) The arboreal hypothesis
B) The social intelligence hypothesis
C) The ecological hypothesis
D) The executive brain hypothesis

Question 33

To understand third-party relationships, a primate must

A) have knowledge of the nature of relationships among other individuals.
B) live in a large group.
C) be able to predict food distribution in an environment.
D) understand the reproductive rates of other primates.

Question 34

A theory of mind includes the ability

A) to form complex social coalitions.
B) to visually distinguish kin from nonkin.
C) to understand the mental states of other individuals.
D) to use tools.

Question 35

There is evidence that monkeys and apes are able to

A) deceive one another.
B) create fictive kin categories.
C) make the connection between what others are looking at and what they are attending to.
D) recognize themselves in a mirror.

Question 36

Playback experiments of vervet monkeys show that

A) males can recognize their offsprings' vocalizations.
B) mothers recognize the call of their own offspring and one another's offspring.
C) offspring recognize the calls of their mothers.
D) all group members respond to calls of juveniles.

Question 37

An example of associative learning is

A) watching the behavior of parents.
B) imprinting.
C) memory of past events.
D) understanding cause and effect.

Question 38

Cognitive differences between humans and great apes

A) are related to their differences in physical cognition.
B) do not exist because both have a theory of mind.
C) seem to reflect the specialized skills humans evolved for living and exchanging knowledge in cultural groups.
D) are manifested within the act of deception.

Question 39

Redirected aggression refers to

A) deception during aggressive episodes to deflect an aggressor toward another individual.
B) turning received aggression back onto an aggressor.
C) responding to a threat by attacking a lower-ranking individual who was not involved in the original incident.
D) an ability only humans have.

Question 40

Associative learning

A) does not require understanding conceptual categories like dominance hierarchies.
B) requires theory of mind.
C) involves knowing the mental states of others.
D) is a level of learning that all animals possess.

Question 41

Explain the conflict over great ape cognitive abilities. Given the evidence, what do you think about great ape versus monkey cognitive abilities?

Question 42

Give two examples showing that primates have intelligence designed for navigating social relationships.

Question 43

Give two examples indicating that primates deliberately deceive conspecifics.

Question 44

Compare and contrast the two main hypotheses accounting for the evolution of intelligence in monkeys and apes.

Question 45

List the four main lobes of the cerebrum and briefly describe what the cerebral cortex is and why anthropologists are interested in it.

Question 46

Give two examples of the experimental evidence that some primates have the ability to recognize the nature of kin relationships among other conspecifics.

Question 47

Explain why coalitional behavior may require sophisticated cognitive abilities.

Question 48

Imagine you are a capuchin monkey that has been enlisted to support another groupmate. Which of the following do you support in an aggressive interaction?

A) A female.
B) A distant associate.
C) A subordinate.
D) None; they are on their own.

Question 49

Imagine you are a male macaque. Another individual is threatening you. Which monkey do you try to enlist for support?

A) A female relative.
B) A subordinate male.
C) A dominant male.
D) None; you are on your own.

Question 50

Chimpanzees and orangutans perform as well as 2-year-old humans in which domain?

A) Memory
B) Imprinting
C) Social cognition
D) Physical cognition

Question 51

How does life history theory explain the trade-offs regarding reproduction and offspring? Illustrate your answer with animal examples.

Question 52

Vervet monkeys and baboons appear to know

A) which monkey provides the best alarm calls.
B) how to deceive other monkeys to gain hidden food.
C) rank relationships among other individuals.
D) how to choose related individuals from pictures.

Question 53

There are two chimpanzees in an experimental design: a dominant one and a subordinate one. The subordinate can see two caches of food, but the dominant can see only one. If chimpanzees have a theory of mind, which of the caches of food do you predict the subordinate chimp will attempt to acquire?

A) The one in view of the dominant chimpanzee
B) The one hidden from the dominant chimpanzee
C) Neither
D) Both

Question 54

What is the neocortex ratio? Explain how data on the neocortex ratio of primate species have been used to address hypotheses accounting for the evolution of primate intelligence.

Question 55

Examples of redirected aggression in vervet monkeys demonstrate that they understand

A) dominance rank.
B) theory of mind.
C) social intelligence.
D) third-party relationships.

Question 56

What evidence is there that primates understand third-party relationships? How is this knowledge beneficial?

Question 57

Monkeys and apes may be able to predict another's behavior. If they haven't acquired this skill by having a theory of mind, they likely have acquired it by

A) natural selection.
B) associative learning.
C) imitation.
D) deception.

Question 58

When a juvenile distress vocalization is played for a troop of vervet monkeys and the mother of the juvenile orients toward the speaker, we can infer that vervet mothers

A) recognize the sound of their own kin.
B) like their offspring.
C) are subordinate to their offspring.
D) are located in the center of vervet troops.