Year 13 Diploma Biology: Questions, to prepare: NEUROBIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR

1.

Homing pigeons are birds which, when transported away from where they have been raised,
have the ability to fly back to their homes. Scientists have investigated how young pigeons used
the magnetic field of the Earth to navigate. The birds had never left their homes before the
experiment. The birds were taken far from their homes, released and the direction in which they
flew was recorded. In the diagrams below, the centre of each circle represents the release site
and the dots on the perimeter show the compass direction in which each bird flew. The dashed
line () represents the direction to home. The length and direction of the arrow summarises the
averaged results for each group in terms of number of birds and direction flown.
Group I:
Group II:

transported to the release site.

transported to the release site, then surrounded by a changing magnetic field
for a time equal to the time of transport.
transported to the release site while being surrounded by a changing magnetic

Group III:
field.
G rou p I

G ro u p II

G ro u p III

O n e b la c k d o t = o n e b ird
[Source: Wolfgang and Roswitha Wiltschko, (1996) Journal of Experimental Biology, 199, pages 2938]

(a)

Identify how many pigeons flew South.

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(1)

(b)

Compare the results from Group I with Group II by giving one similarity and one
difference.
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(2)

(c)

Draw the direction arrow on the diagram for Group III.

(2)

(d)

Explain the type of behaviour shown by the pigeons.

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(2)
(Total 7 marks)

2.

Discuss, using named examples, how the process of learning improves an animals chance of
survival.
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(Total 4 marks)

3.

Banded wrens (Thryothorus pleurostictus) are known to sing actively in defence of their
territories during the breeding season. Males possess over twenty different song-types. When
two males approach each other near a boundary they engage in counter-singing and some songtypes will be shared. The following diagram shows the pattern of song-types used during an
interaction between two males at their territorial boundary in the Guanacaste Conservation Area,
Costa Rica. The arrows indicate when both males sang identical song-types in succession. The
interaction ended without a fight when the males retreated from the boundary.
G
F
E

b ird I
b ird J

D
S o n g -ty p e

C
B
A
B ird s a p p ro a c h

T im e / 1 s o n g e v e ry 1 1 s e c o n d s

B ird s re tre a t

[Source: Molles and Vehrencamp, Proceeding of the Royal Society Biological Science, (2001),
268 (1480), pages 20132018]

(a)

Identify which song-types are shared between both males.

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(2)

(b)

Describe the changes in the song-type pattern during the entire interaction.
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(2)

(c)

Deduce how a male banded wren can communicate aggressive behaviour.

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(2)
(Total 6 marks)

4.HL Describe, giving an example, the role of altruistic behaviour in social organizations.
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(Total 4 marks)

5.

Explain the role of natural selection in the development of behaviour patterns.

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(Total 6 marks)

6.HL
Entomologists investigating communication between worker bees (Apis melifera)
observed workers collecting sugar solutions from feeder stations placed at different distances from
the hive. The workers waggle dances were filmed as they returned to the hive and the duration of
the waggle was measured. The results are shown in the graph below.
900
800
700
600
W a g g le d u ra tio n / m s

500
400
300
200
100
0

25

50

75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275 300

F e e d e r d is ta n c e / m

[Source: H E Esch, et al. (2001), Nature, 411, pages 581583]

(a)

State the relationship between the duration of the waggle dance and the distance from the
feeder hive.
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(1)

(b)

State another piece of information that worker bees communicate to one another.
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(1)

Worker bees were then trained to collect sugar solution by flying down an 8 m long tunnel
running south from the hive. The tunnel was placed so that the entrance was 3 m from the hive.
The floor and walls of the tunnel were covered with a black and white chequered pattern but the
roof was covered in netting so the bees could see the sky.
(c)

Calculate the actual distance of the sugar solution at the end of the tunnel from the hive.
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(1)

When the bees returned to the hive, the duration of their waggle was recorded and found to have
a mean of 350 ms.
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(d)
Using the graph, determine the distance to the sugar solution indicated by the duration of
the waggle dance by the worker bees returning from the tunnel.
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(1)

(e)

Deduce why there is a difference between the real distance flown by the bees and the
information that they passed on to their fellow workers in the hive.
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(2)

(f)

Suggest a modification to the experiment that would help to test your answer to (e).
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(1)
(Total 7 marks)

7.HL
When birds are in danger of attack by predators, they sometimes sleep with one eye
open and one eye closed. Neurobiologists investigated this behaviour pattern using mallard ducks
(Anas platyrhynchos). Video recordings were made of groups of four sleeping birds, arranged in a
row. The birds at the ends of the row were more vulnerable to predator attacks and kept one eye
open 150 % more of the time than the two birds in the centre of the row.
Electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings were made to monitor the brain state of the birds at the
ends of the rows. A region of the brain which indicates whether the bird is asleep or awake was
monitored in each of the left and right cerebral hemispheres. EEG recordings were made when
the birds were sleeping with both eyes closed, when the birds had both eyes open and also when
they had one eye open. These results are shown in the bar chart below, as a percentage of the
activity of the brain region when the birds were sleeping with both eyes closed.
125

K ey:
L e ft
h e m is p h e re
R ig h t
h e m is p h e re

100
A c tiv ity o f th e b ra in
re g io n (% o f a c tiv ity
w ith b o th e y e s
c lo s e d )
75

0
B o th
eyes
c lo s e d

B o th
eyes
open

L e ft e y e
c lo s e d
rig h t e y e
open

L e ft e y e
open
rig h t e y e
c lo s e d

[Source: Rattenborg, et al., Nature, 1999, 397, pages 397398]

(a)

State the effect of opening both eyes on activity in the region of the brain that was being
monitored.
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(1)

(b)

(i)

Using the data in the bar chart, deduce the effect on the two cerebral hemispheres of
opening only the right eye.
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(2)
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(ii)

Determine which hemisphere is more awake when the right eye is open.
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(1)

(iii)

Using the data in the bar chart, deduce how the left and right eyes and left and right
hemispheres are connected.
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(1)

(c)

Suggest two advantages to birds of keeping one eye open during sleep.
1. ...........................................................................................................................................
2. ...........................................................................................................................................
(2)
(Total 7 marks)

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