(April 19, 2010) Robert Sapolsky looks at the biology of behavior through the ethological lens: observing animals in various natural environments, in their own language. He explores behavioral variety, the importance of gene environment interactions, experimental testing of fixed action patterns, the releasing of informational stimuli, and neuroethology. Stanford University http://www.stanford.edu Stanford Department of Biology http://biology.stanford.edu/ Stanford University Channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/stanford
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I love this man like he is my third cousin.
Stanford, could you guys please please please record Sapolsky doing this class again? It absolutely transformed the way I see the world and I would love to hear where these fields are at 8 years later.
This lecture series is incredible, as is the fact it's available to the world - fantastic.
I love how he always finds a way to sneak a little joke in every now and then...
My father was a psychologist, and he was at a dinner one night with Skinner. After the dinner, they had a lengthy conversation, after which my father asked if Skinner would autograph his book. My father wanted him to sign it like this: BEHAVE!!!!! - BF Skinner. Skinner, being a good sport, agreed, and it's one of my most prized belongings.
Sapolsky is a boss
I am supposed to be learning music production during the lockdown but im hooked to this lecture series. Also, 9 episodes down, there is a girl in this class with some chronic coughing situation going on. She's been coughing her lungs out for last last three lectures.
I'm enjoying these and am absorbing alot! More than I expected! He dosnt bore me to sleep either! Great teacher! Need more like him!
He actually has this whole range of material committed to memory. He's not using a PowerPoint and only looks at notes every once in a while. It's incredible.
He makes me love science. That’s the kind of people we need in education.
"you didn't need to learn by trial and error to know that when you're floating in the air, that tends not to last for long, and you get owies afterward" My god, I love this man.
I'm so happy dogs know the difference between kicking it intentionally and tripping over it!
The word you're looking for, for male deer, is Buck :) - A Canadian
"duckies goose-stepping behind Konrad Lorenz"-- brilliant wordplay. Brilliant.
What do two behaviorists say after sex? "I know it was good for you, was it good for me?"
Ethology is about interviewing an animal in it's own language. Nicolaas Tinbergen, Conrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch (1973 Nobel laurets in Physiology/Medicine) Contrasts with behaviorism - which is about extreme environmentalism - you can control everything about an animal's behaviour through positive and negative reinforcements. The questions that ethology asks - 1. What is the fixed action pattern? 2. How can it be improve upon? (ie what are the contexts in which the animal learns to do it better?) 3. What are the evolutionary advantages of having that fixed action pattern? 4. What stimuli from the outside environment triggers the pattern? 5. What happens inside the animal's nervous system between a stimulus triggering a behaviour and that behaviour actually occurring? 6. What does learning have to do with all this?
I love the way he says "lets get going" at the beginning of most lectures. I know it's a random comment.
9 lectures in, and most of the r/iamverysmart people have been eliminated from the population
"Elephants communicate through vibrations in their feet." Mind blown.
Fixed Action Pattern abbreviated is FAP !