|
Showing 1 - 3 of
3 matches in All Departments
This lecture was intended to give an idea of causal ethological
methods used to analyse the functional organisation of the causal
machinery underly- ing the behaviour of an animal. This approach is
sketched on the basis of a special case: a study of the causal
factors involved in the occurrence of different behaviour patterns
in a herring gull incubating its eggs. It is shown how the concept
of a functional organisation underlying behaviour makes it possible
to interprete: 1. the apparently irrelevant occurrence of behaviour
(re-settling, nest- building, preening) interrupting the principal,
functionally relevant, behav- iour (incubation) which is going on;
2. variations in the values attributed by an animal under different
circumstances to characteristics of objects releasing and directing
certain behaviour patterns (e.g. a shift of the size of the egg
models optimal in evoking a retrieval response when placed on the
nest rim); 3. the evolution of behaviour elements serving a signal
function. The further development of adequate methods for the
causal study of the functional organisation of the behaviour of a
species as well as of an indi- vidual, is considered to be one of
the most important tasks for ethology in the near future,
particularly with respect to the contribution of ethology in
understanding human behaviour. Resume Par cette conference l'auteur
a l'intention de presenter les methodes ethologiques, appliquees
pour analyser l'organisation fonctionnelle du me- canisme causal,
qui est a la base du comportement d'un animal.
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.