Evolutionary Psychobiology

Owner	Bachelor Psychobiologie
Coordinator	dr. Karline Janmaat
Part of	Minor Evolutionary Psychobiology, year 1Exchange Programme Faculty of Science, specialisation BSc Psychobiology, year 1Bachelor Psychobiologie, year 3Bachelor Biologie, year 3

Course manual 2019/2020

Course content

The study of animal behaviour, provides us with knowledge on the cognitive skills of a large variety of animal species and populations and their relation to social and ecological conditions, making it a crucial part of studies in psychology and biology. Each animal has special requirements to survive and reproduce, and the same problem is often solved in different ways in different species. Observations of such species-specific behaviours (e.g. tool use, food caching behaviour and imprinting) led to new insights in the anatomy and physiology of brain structures and their evolution. Studying our own behaviour and that of other animals can thus provide a window into our minds and insight into what makes us human.

When studying animal behaviour, questions are asked not only about “how” behaviour is controlled, but also about what behaviour is for, how it evolved in the natural environment (“why” questions). The second half of the course will focus on how to answer these questions. You will learn how to design a behavioural study and how to conduct behavioural measurements accurately and reliably. The course will include a nine days practical where you collect behavioural data by observing an animal of your choice, such as a primate, dog, cat, corvid or parrot species in a natural, semi-natural or captive environment. The aim of these observations is to study the extent of cognitive capacities, such as episodic-like memory, timing, planning, insight, orientation, recognition, communication, social learning and so on. The final aim of the practical work is to have you develop and present a promising design for an experimental or observational study. The practical work is alternated with lectures and journal clubs that will help you develop such a design. These will address topics as recording methods, observer bias, how to deal with confounding variables (through design and use of statistics), advantages of experiments versus observational designs, wild versus captive studies and how to measure validity and independency of collected data. Dependent on your enthusiasm and performance such designs can be followed up with a Bachelor or Masters research project.

Study materials

Literature

• Measuring Behaviour. An Introductory Guide”, 3rd edition (2007), Martin, P. & Bateson, P. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN: 9780521535632. Ca 35,-
• Cognition, Evolution and behaviour”, 2nd edition (2010), Shettleworth, S.J., Oxford University Press. ISBN-:78-0195319842)

Other

• additional articles on Canvas

Objectives

• explain why comparisons of animal behaviour accross species can provide insight in the structure and evolution of our brain and name the approaches scientists
• explain why comparing our own behaviour to that of other animal species can provide a window into our mind.
• explain why studying animal behaviour helps us to understand where cognitive abilities are located in the brain, how they evolved and what methods scientists use
• name the four type of questions that ethologists in the past (e.g. Tinbergen) and present asked to understand behaviour of humans or other animals and provide
• describe how primate brains differ from that of other animals, describe important transitions and selection pressures in primate brain evolution an evaluate which
• describe the important transitions in primate brain evolution and theories on what makes us human.
• describe the differences between primate and non-primate brains.
• describe and name examples of different levels of cognition as well as current issues investigated in the fields of social, ecological and physical cognition research
• describe the differences between and name examples of first and second order processes in animal cognition and evaluate the challenge of inferring their use from
• describe a set of current issues investigated in the fields of social, ecological and physical cognition research.
• describe and substantiate how and where we can best study animal behaviour.
• describe the cons and pros of observational, quasi-experimental and experimental studies and give examples of such studies.
• substantiate your position in a debate on how and where one can best study animal behaviour
• describe the cons and pros of behavioural studies in captivity and the wild.
• explain the essential methodological and collaborative steps that need to be taken to conduct a behavioural study and evaluate the cons and pros of different
• explain how to conduct behavioural observations by identifying individuals and their different type of behaviours, making an ethogram, choosing and defining
• explain how to conduct behavioural measurements using a variety of recording methods (e.g. focal sampling vs scan sampling) and recording rules (e.g. continuous
• explain how to conduct data sharing activities and inter-observer reliability tests in R.
• evaluate the cons and pros of different recording methods and rules.
• organize, apply and synthesize theoretical and practical knowledge to 1) develop your own research question, 2) evaluate the results of a pilot study and 3) design
• organize the theoretical knowledge obtained in the lectures and develop a research question.
• synthesize what you have learned in the practical and the lectures by conducting an observational pilot study, analyse and evaluate the results by descriptive
• explain your research ideas to other researchers or lay people, create discussion about it and develop skills to bring your ideas accross

Teaching methods

• Practicum
• Lecture
• Laptop seminar
• Fieldwork/excursion
• Presentation/symposium
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis
• Self-study
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Supervision/feedback meeting

The main goal of this course is to train you to design a behavioural study that will answer a scientific question of your choice, being equipped with a well-grounded theoretical background on evolutionary theories on human evolution and methodology. To obtain this goal several formats will be used:

Lectures

The lectures form the theoretical backbone of the course. Evolutionary theories on human evolution will be discussed from a biological and psychological perspective, as well as current issues on social and physical cognition in humans and other animals and methodological issues (e.g. experimental vs observational research, research in captivity vs the wild). The first week is in the Artis zoo. We highly advice you to use this week to prepare the practicum, (to choose a study species and topic for your own study).

Journal Clubs

As preparation on your own research design, students will discuss articles in journal clubs related to a certain topic. On day one of the second week course students can indicate their preference for one of four topics. Topics will range from physical cognition (e.g. mental time travel), convergent cognitive traits (e.g. in insects and vertebrates) to social cognition (e.g. imitation, fairness) as well as communication, personality and animal training methods.

Research Lectures

To help you obtain ideas on how to design your own research we invited three researchers studying behaviour in dogs and primates, to explain how they found behavioural evidence to answer their research questions.

Practicum

The practicum consists of two parts. Firstly, students will practice in pairs on observing predetermined behaviour in several species. Subsequently, based on their gained skills in Part A students will conduct their own pilot study in Part B. Based on their findings a research design for a future study will be developed and presented at the final symposium. The best presentation will be invited to speak at the Artis Conference.

 

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in all practical (computer) sessions, field work and seminars in the curriculum is obligatory. Any additional requirements are described per component in the study guide. Here is also described what the possible consequences are of not complying with this obligation.
  

Additional requirements for this course:

• Attendance to all components of the course is obligatory and absence will cause exclusion from the course.

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade
1 (50%) Tentamen	Must be ≥ 5.5
1 (50%) Own project	Must be ≥ 5.5

The study goals of the course will be examined in two fashions:

Written exam (50%)

The written exam exists of 15 open questions based on a selection of abovementioned study goals and takes place in the middle of the course.

Exam: literature for the exam will be communicated on Canvas. This will include chapters of the required books and several articles. 

The results of your research project (50%)

The assessment form that also clarifies the different components of the project can be uploaded from Canvas. The literature study needs to be written alone and will be graded individually. The presentation of the study design, the datasheet, ethogram and individual recognition datasheets will be graded in couples. The submitted questions to classmates will be assessed individually.

Attendance and active participation will weigh in the final grade.

Project: when deadlines (indicated on datanose and the handouts) are not met, no points for that particular assignment will be given. 

Inspection of assessed work

Contact the course coordinator to make an appointment for inspection.

Assignments

Assignments to prepare students to develop their final research design  (own project) exist of:

• Journal clubs attendance and preparation (to develop research question)
• Practicum exercise  (to obtain practical skills on data collection)
• Literature study (to obtain theoretical knowledge on topic and study animal)
• Pilot study (to show data collection skills (including ethogram, datasheet design, individual recognition)
• Peer review presentations (to show your ability to provide constructive feedback to other scientists)
• Oral presentation (to show your ability to design and present ideas for your own research study)

 

.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Exit qualifications

Via de Zichtbare Leerlijnen Creator kun je zien aan welke eindtermen de leerdoelen van deze cursus bijdragen en hoe de  vakleerdoelen, leerlijndoelen en eindtermen van de opleiding aan elkaar gekoppeld zijn:

https://datanose.nl/#program[BSc%20PB]/outcomes 

https://datanose.nl/#program[BSc%20PB]/trajectories

Additional information

This course will be taught in English.

This course is part of the minor/track Evolutionary Psychobiology. Students registered for this minor/track will be placed first (Max. 40 students).

Suggested prior knowledge: Evolution and Human Behaviour: Darwinian Perspectives on Human Nature (2nd ed.) – John Cartwright (2008) or similar book.

Processed course evaluations

Below you will find the adjustments in the course design in response to the course evaluations.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. Karline Janmaat

• Dr. Karline R. L. Janmaat
• email: K.R.L.Janmaat@uva.nl
•  
• Tifenn de Jong MSc.
• email: t.k.dejong@uva.nl
• Universiteit van Amsterdam | Afdeling Psychologie | Ontwikkelingspsychologie | Onderwijscoordinatie |Aanwezig op di, vrij|Nieuwe Achtergracht 129B, Kamer G1.11 |