User:Michelle tapp/sandbox

Aggressive Behaviour in Females

Thus far, the current article has mainly focused on the behaviours of female Siamese fighting fish. Therefore, it is important to consider the behaviours of the opposite sex. In general, studies have shown that females exhibit similar aggressive behaviours as their male counterparts; these behaviours are just less prevalent. A group of female Siamese fighting fish were observed over a period of two weeks. During these two weeks, the following behaviours were recorded: attacking, displays, and biting food. The results of this observational study indicated that when females are housed in small groups, they form a stable dominance order. For example, the fish who was ranked at the top showed higher levels of mutual displays, in comparison to the fish who were of lower ranks. The researchers also found that the duration of the displays differed depending on whether an attack occurred. The results of these studies indicate that female Siamese fighting fish should be considered as often as males, as there is evidently interesting variations in their behaviours as well.

Courtship Behaviour

There has been numerous research in the area of courtship behaviour between male and female Siamese fighting fish. This research has focused on the aggressive behaviours of males during the courtship process. For example, one study found that when male fish are in the bubble nest fase, their aggression toward other females is quite low. This is due to the males attempting to attract potential mates to their nest, so eggs can successfully be laid. It has also been found that in regards to mate choice, females often “eavesdrop” on pairs of male Siamese fighting fish while they are fighting. When females witness aggressive behaviour between a pair of males, the female is more likely to be attracted to the male who won. In contrast, if a female did not “eavesdrop” on aggressive behaviour between a pair of males, the female will show no preference in mate choice. In regards to the male fish, the “loser” fish are more likely to attempt to court the fish who did not “eavesdrop”. The “winner” fish have been found to show no preference in regards to female fish who “eavesdropped” and those who did not. One study considered the ways in which male Siamese fighting fish alter their behaviours during courtship when another male is present. During this experiment, a dummy female was placed in the tank. The researchers expected that males would conceal their courtship from intruders, however this surprisingly was not the case. It was found that when another male fish was present, the male was more likely to engage in courtship behaviours with the dummy female fish. When no barriers were present, the males were more likely to engage in gill flaring at an intruder male fish. Therefore, the researchers conclude that the male is attempting to court the female and communicate with the rival male present at the same time. These results indicate the importance of considering courtship behaviour, as the literature has suggested there are many factors that can dramatically affect the ways in which both male and females can act in courtship settings.

Metabolic Costs of Aggression

It has been previously mentioned that, Siamese fighting fish are known for their aggressive behaviours. When considering these aggressive behaviours, it is important to investigate the metabolic costs associated with such displays. Is it worth it for the fish to display aggressive behaviours? Studies have found that Siamese fighting fish often begin with behaviours that require high cost, and gradually decrease their behaviours as the encounter proceeds. This indicates that Siamese fighting fish will first begin an encounter using much metabolic energy, but will gradually decrease, as to not use too much energy, thus making the encounter a waste if the fish is not successful. Similarly, researchers have found that when pairs of male Siamese fighting fish were kept together in the same tank for a three day period, aggressive behaviour was most prevalent during the mornings of the first two days of their cohabitation. However the researchers observed that the fighting between the two males decreased as the day progressed. The male in the dominant position initially had metabolic advantage; although as the experiment progressed, both fish became equal in regards to metabolic advantages. In regards to oxygen consumption, one study found that when two male Siamese fighting fish fought, the metabolic rates of both fish did not differ before or during the fight. However, the fish who won showed higher oxygen consumption during the evening subsequent to the fight. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that aggressive behaviour in the form of fighting has long-lasting effects on metabolism .

Effects of Chemical Exposure on Behaviour

Chemicals such as hormones can have powerful effects on the behaviour of an individual. Researchers have considered the effect that such chemicals can have on Siamese fighting fish. This section will examine three studies, each of which indicates that chemicals can significantly affect the behaviours of Siamese fighting fish. In particular, these behaviour changes are most likely to occur in regards to aggression. One study investigated the effect of testosterone on female Siamese fighting fish. Females were first given testosterone, which resulted in physical changes. This included fin length, body coloration and gonads. These physical changes resulted in the females resembling typical male fish. Next their aggressive behaviour was monitored. It was found that when these females interacted with other females, their aggression increased. In contrast, when the females interacted with males, their aggressive behaviour decreased. The researchers then allowed the female fish to interact socially with a group of other female fish, who had not been exposed to testosterone. It was found that when the female fish stopped receiving testosterone, those who were exposed to the female fish still exhibited the male typical behaviours. In contrast, the female fish who were kept isolated did not continue to exhibit the male typical behaviours after testosterone was discontinued. Another study exposed male Siamese fighting fish to endocrine disrupting chemicals. The researchers were curious if exposure to these chemicals would affect the ways in which females respond to the exposed males. It was found that when shown videos of the exposed males, the females favoured those who were not exposed to the endocrine disrupting chemicals, and avoided those male who were exposed. Therefore, the researchers concluded that exposure to these chemicals can negatively affect the mating success of male Siamese fighting fish. The last study investigated the effect of the SSRI, fluoxetine, on male Siamese fighting fish. It has been previously found that this chemical reduces aggressive behaviour; therefore, researchers were curious if this would occur in their experiment. As predicted, it was found that when exposed to fluoxetine, male Siamese fighting fish exhibited less aggressive behaviour than they would have if they had not been exposed to the chemical.

Responding to Peer Review

The peer review that I received was very insightful. My reviewers suggested that I add scholarly sources, and reminded me the importance of using scholarly sources. They also suggested that I research whether there is any work on female betta fish and territorial behavior. Another reviewer suggested that I consider the aggressive behaviors of other fish, and how male bettas interact with these other fish. This reviewer also commented that flowing fins is part of the problem and why betta fish (and also guppies too apparently) can be aggressive towards each other. I will definitely take note of these suggestions as I write my wikipidea article.

Peer Review by Mdw087

I am a big fan of fish so I am quite excited to see your chosen topic. The mirror response studies will be excellent to comment on as will any sex differences. You may want to consider adding some more topics in though to ensure you have a substantial amount for the final assignment. For example you may also want to look at the aggressive behavior of bettas to other species of fish and discuss what it is exactly that triggers the aggression in male bettas. From what I know, long flowing fins seems to be part of the stimulus, as male fancy guppies and male bettas can absolutely not be tank mates due to frequent fighting which leads to a whole series of additional problems. You do not have any sources listed yet but as far as I know we were not required to have all our references prepared for this assignment, but I will just recommend you stick with peer reviewed scientific articles and avoid blogs completely due to the typically biased, unsourced, and unreliable information. I look forward to reading your final draft and I hope my suggestions can be of some help to you!

Adding to an Article

I have noticed on the betta fish/Siamese fighting fish article that they only have a brief paragraph for behavior. I have decided to expand on this section, and focus primarily on the territorial behaviors of these fish. I will discuss studies that have been conducted on flaring behavior when the betta is presented with a mirror. I will also look into if there are any sex differences between male and female bettas.

Assignment Two

Here is what I have edited for assignment two:

Applications

Fixed Ratio Schedules and Gambling Habits

Fixed ratio schedules are when a reinforcement is provided on a fixed schedule. For example, when people are using slot machines, the reward of winning is not provided every time. It is on a schedule, so people are still receiving the reward sometimes, and thus are willing to spend the money on the slot machine. Fixed ratio schedules encourage reckless and spontaneous behaviors.

Article Evaluation

Article: Operant Conditioning

1. I did not find anything in the article that was not relevant to the topic. It covered the material that we discussed in class, along with additional material. It discussed the general theory, the main contributors (Thorndike and Skinner), and discussed other things such as shaping, and how operant conditioning can be applied to humans. However I found the introduction to be fairly brief, and I do not think it goes into enough detail about what operant conditioning actually is. It mainly compares it to classical conditioning.
2. Nothing seemed particularly biased to me. All the information was presented in a logical and academic sounding manner.
3. There also did not seem to be any view points that are over/under represented.
4. All the citations that I checked worked, and the sources seemed to be very good. There were a couple text books, and a few journal articles that were appropriate for the topic. The article used writing by BF Skinner himself, which I found particularly impressive.
5. There were no biases that I could note from the references
6. The information did not seem out of date. However more information in the introduction could be added to expand on the topic and avoid such a discussion of classical conditioning.
7. There is quite a bit of activity in the talk page of the article. One of the first comments points out the concerns that I had regarding the introduction. There are also some people commenting saying that they think the way information is presented is confusing. One comment however that I find the most interesting is one suggesting that he/she does not find the article confusing/too technical, because of his/her understanding of psychology. It is interesting because I also did not find the article particularly confusing, and this is also probably due to my psychology background.
8. This article is apart of the WikiProject Psychology and has a B-Class rating
9. This article includes more information than what we have covered in class. However the information that we did cover in class that the article describes is generally covered in the same way.

Additional Things I noted:

• I really liked the graphics in this article, particularly the diagram in the introduction that visually breaks down the difference between reinforcement and punishment and the different types of each.
• I also really liked how there is a section on how operant conditioning can be applied to parenting, along with a section about ABA therapy.

Michelle tapp (talk)