Herring gulls feed their chicks by regurgitating food for the chick in the nest. When a chick pecks at the red spot on the gull's beak, the parent regurgitates the food. Interestingly, the chicks will peck at any red spot, whether it is attached to a gull or not. Which features of this behavior are correctly labeled? (Check three.)

Question

_____  Fixed action pattern -- finding a healthy variety of food for the chick
_____  Fixed action pattern -- pecking at the spot
_____  Innate releasing mechanism -- neural circuit that induces pecking in response to a red spot
_____  Innate releasing mechanism -- the red spot
_____  Key stimulus -- the shape of the parent's beak
_____  Key stimulus -- the regurgitated food
_____  Key stimulus -- the red spot


Clarify question:
  What is the key concept addressed by the question?

What type of thinking is required?


Gather Content:
What do you already know about feeding behaviors? What other information is related to the question? 

Choose Answer:
  Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?


Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
 

Answer 1

_____  Fixed action pattern -- finding a healthy variety of food for the chick
__X__  Fixed action pattern -- pecking at the spot
__X__  Innate releasing mechanism -- neural circuit that induces pecking in response to a red spot
_____  Innate releasing mechanism -- the red spot
_____  Key stimulus -- the shape of the parent's beak
_____  Key stimulus -- the regurgitated food
__X__  Key stimulus -- the red spot


Clarify question:
  What is the key concept addressed by the question?
The question asks about the feeding behavior in herring gulls. 

What type of thinking is required?
This is an apply question, you will need to apply the knowledge you have about how behavioral responses are produced and then apply it to the situation with the herring gull. This question has 3 correct answers


Gather Content:
What do you already know about feeding behaviors? What other information is related to the question? 
This question comes from the section of the textbook that deals with the relationship between stimuli and fixed responses. You have 3 parts of identify: the stimulus, the mechanism that produces the behavior, and the behavior itself. What stimulates the chick? How does the chick produce the behavior? What is the behavioral response performed by the chick?


Choose Answer:
  Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
The spot is the stimulus, the neural circuit is the innate releasing mechanism, and the pecking is the fixed action pattern.


Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
Were you able to determine the correct answers? You had to apply concepts of behavior to a situation and pick out the components of that behavior.