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Lesson Quiz

24.4 Social Interactions and Group Behavior

Directions
For multiple choice questions, write the letter that best answers the question or completes the
statement on the line provided. For other question types, follow the directions provided.

_______ 1. Isopods are also known as pill bugs or sow bugs. They are crustaceans
that breathe through organs that need to be kept moist.
A student is testing isopods’ response to light. The results of the
experiment show that the isopods move away from light and gather in dark areas
as soon as they hatch.
Select two statements that explain whether this behavior by the isopods is innate
or learned, and that describe the adaptive advantage of this behavior.
a. This behavior appears to be innate, because the isopods could not have
learned the behavior during the experiment. The animals exhibited this
behavior as soon as they were exposed to the light, right after they hatched.
b. This behavior has an adaptive advantage for isopods because dark areas in
nature are usually moist. Those isopods that moved to dark, moist areas
were more likely to survive and pass the genetic trait to their offspring.
c. This behavior appears to be learned, because the isopods only exhibited this
behavior after they were exposed to the light in the experiment.
d. This behavior is artificial and therefore does not have an adaptive advantage
for isopods in nature, because those isopods that moved to dark, moist areas
would more likely become food for predators and would not survive.

_______ 2. Select three findings that show that behavior has a genetic component.
a. It was found that mice who do not engage in nurturing, maternal behavior
with their newborns lacked a certain gene that produces a specific protein.
b. Scientists isolated an egg-laying hormone (a protein) that causes the marine
snail Aplysia to lay eggs even if it has not mated.
c. When two species of lovebirds were interbred, the hybrid birds had difficulty
carrying nesting material.
d. Chicks of laughing gulls improve their ability to peck a parent’s bill in order to
get the parent to regurgitate food during the first few days in the nest.

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3. Read each of the sentences that describe a type of learned behavior.

Identify each description as one of the four types of learned behavior. Write the
correct number on each line.

I. Habituation
II. Insight Learning
III. Classical Conditioning
IV. Operant Conditioning

____ a. Deer grazing on the side of a busy highway are ignoring traffic. The
deer do not consider the traffic a threat; it is a neutral stimulus.
____ b. Chimpanzees that learned to stack boxes used them to reach bananas.
____ c. Monarch caterpillars store milkweed toxins in their bodies. Blue jays that
get sick after eating a monarch butterfly that contains these toxins will
no longer prey on them even if they are readily available.
____ d. A bell is rung when a dog is given food. After some training, the dog will
salivate when the bell is rung, even though no food is given.
____ e. A caged rat is trained to press a lever whenever it wants a sugar cube.
____ f. Prairie dogs give alarm calls when predators approach. When prairie
dog towns are located near nature trails used by humans, they stop
giving an alarm call every time a person walks by.

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_______ 4. Monarchs are the only butterflies that migrate for very long distances like
some birds do. In the late summer and early fall of each year, shorter days and
cooler temperatures tell the monarch butterflies not to breed, but instead, to
begin their long migration. Eastern Monarchs migrate in masses to overwintering
grounds in Central Mexico, a journey of up to 3,000 miles. The monarchs’
overwintering sites in the forests of the mountain ranges in Central Mexico are
about 10,000 feet (3,000 m), above sea level. The monarchs that emerge in
September and early October are the migrants. They will live six to eight months
mostly from stored fat. Hundreds of millions of butterflies can overwinter in
Mexico in one year. By early March they fly back north in masses.
Select the three correct statements of how this behavior helps the monarchs
survive and reproduce.
a. During the winter, the tall trees of the Central Mexican forests provide a thick
canopy, helping to protect the monarchs from wind, snow, rain, or hail. Fog
and clouds settle on the trees and provide moisture.
b. When the monarch butterflies fly north in the spring, they find nectar sources
among the flowering plants and the females find early sprouts of milkweed on
which to lay their eggs.
c. When the monarch butterflies fly south in the fall, they take advantage of the
tropical climate in Mexico to hibernate there and live off the abundant insect
life.
d. During the fall migration, sugars from nectar are stored as fat in the butterfly’s
abdomen. This fat is necessary fuel for the butterflies to complete their
migration and overwinter successfully.

5. Read each of the statements and match it with a type of communication.

Write the letter of each communication type next to each statement.

V. Visual signals
C. Chemical signals
S. Sound signals
L. Language

____ a. Male peacocks show an elaborate display of feathers to attract females.

____ b. Prairie dogs give an alarm call to warn others of approaching predators.

____ c. Female Luna moths attract males by a pheromone released from a

gland at the tip of their abdomens.

____ d. Bees perform a complex waggle dance to tell other bees where to find
food.

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