Animal Communication Test 2 – Study Guide, Key Concepts and Practice Exam
Review
Types of stimuli - ANS ✔✔Tactile
Thermal
Gravitational
Auditory
Visual
Chemical
Electrical/magnetic
Stimulus filtering: process by which animals filter through stimuli that is important and not -
ANS ✔✔Qualitative: what stimuli can/cannot be perceived (color/sound)
Quantitative: intensity, how well can they perceive (brightness/loudness)
Temporal properties: time; can animals sense patterns/ changes over time?
Spatial properties: can animal sense where stimulus is coming from (sound/odor)
Peripheral filtering: in the receptors or sense organs
Central filtering: central nervous system (brain/spinal cord)
Chemical senses - ANS ✔✔General chemical sense: can sense chemical when it touches the
body. Least sensitive of 3 senses
, Taste: intermediate sensitivity, receptors on tongue, etc.
Smell/olfaction: most sensitive, low concentration, can sense at a distance
Karl von Frisch honey bee experiment: (quantitative) eventually, honey bees could distinguish
43 different odors. Oil & lemon.
Odor gradients
-wind speed, size of molecules, active space, fading time of odor
-alarm substances
Visual senses: preserves spatial objects - ANS ✔✔Diurnal vs.
Nocturnal: sensitive to low light levels, large eyes, dilate large pupils, spherical lenses, more
rods (low light, no color)
Tapidum lucidem: membrane behind retina, light bounces back and forth, deer in headlights
-pooling of information from more than one receptor
Ommatidia: (think of an insects eye with hash marks) picture made of of pixels, more info but
less sharp image
Color vision
-opsins (cone pigments)
-trichromatic vision
-dichromatic vision: can't distinguish red from green)
-rhodopsin
Review
Types of stimuli - ANS ✔✔Tactile
Thermal
Gravitational
Auditory
Visual
Chemical
Electrical/magnetic
Stimulus filtering: process by which animals filter through stimuli that is important and not -
ANS ✔✔Qualitative: what stimuli can/cannot be perceived (color/sound)
Quantitative: intensity, how well can they perceive (brightness/loudness)
Temporal properties: time; can animals sense patterns/ changes over time?
Spatial properties: can animal sense where stimulus is coming from (sound/odor)
Peripheral filtering: in the receptors or sense organs
Central filtering: central nervous system (brain/spinal cord)
Chemical senses - ANS ✔✔General chemical sense: can sense chemical when it touches the
body. Least sensitive of 3 senses
, Taste: intermediate sensitivity, receptors on tongue, etc.
Smell/olfaction: most sensitive, low concentration, can sense at a distance
Karl von Frisch honey bee experiment: (quantitative) eventually, honey bees could distinguish
43 different odors. Oil & lemon.
Odor gradients
-wind speed, size of molecules, active space, fading time of odor
-alarm substances
Visual senses: preserves spatial objects - ANS ✔✔Diurnal vs.
Nocturnal: sensitive to low light levels, large eyes, dilate large pupils, spherical lenses, more
rods (low light, no color)
Tapidum lucidem: membrane behind retina, light bounces back and forth, deer in headlights
-pooling of information from more than one receptor
Ommatidia: (think of an insects eye with hash marks) picture made of of pixels, more info but
less sharp image
Color vision
-opsins (cone pigments)
-trichromatic vision
-dichromatic vision: can't distinguish red from green)
-rhodopsin
