Subject: Need info on releasers From: Cecilia Lambert Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:06:44 -0700 (PDT) To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Please, can someone send me some info on releasers. People keep sending me to Wikipedia while at the same time, telling me they don't always have it right. I need some examples and I have some questions. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue Subject: Re: Need info on releasers From: "Jay R. Feierman" Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:08:42 -0600 To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Hello CeAnn, The classic work on releasers is Niko Tinbergen's A Study of Instinct. Oxford University Press 1951. In summary, a releaser is a perceptual stimulus (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile) that when perceived by a conspecific, "releases" a specific coordinated motor pattern. A more recent reference is I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt's Ethology, either the 1970 or the 1975 version, both available on Amazon.com used for a very low price. There has not been much written on the concept of releasers in the past 25 or so years, as everything that could be said has been said many decades earlier. One fact that is useful to people interested in human ethology, is that the response to a "releaser" is always a coordinated motor pattern, rather than one of the more "flexible" behaviors humans are capable of executing. Also, the threshold for release of a specific coordinated motor pattern to a specific releaser is mood dependent, meaning that the threshold for release of the coordinated motor pattern can go up or down, depending on the organism's current mood. Also, why so little posting on this group for the past few months? Regards, Jay R. Feierman To join the Yahoo Human Ethology group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Cecilia Lambert To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 1:06 PM Subject: Need info on releasers Please, can someone send me some info on releasers. People keep sending me to Wikipedia while at the same time, telling me they don't always have it right. I need some examples and I have some questions. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue Subject: Re: Need info on releasers From: Cecilia Lambert Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:35:55 -0700 (PDT) To: "Jay R. Feierman" CC: applied-ethology@usask.ca Ok. Now do releasers come into play in the process of imprinting? Say, when an animals eyes are just starting to open and they see shadows and movement. Are the shadows and movements releasers for imprinting? I hope that question makes sense. As to the little amount of posting, I am trying to stope the use of dogs in running pens to kill coyotes and foxes. The coyotes and foxes are used as live bait to train kill dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild. I want to make running pens illegal in IN and also stop the use of dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild in our state. I am making headway. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue --- On Fri, 8/14/09, Jay R. Feierman wrote: From: Jay R. Feierman Subject: Re: Need info on releasers To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 4:08 PM Hello CeAnn, The classic work on releasers is Niko Tinbergen's A Study of Instinct. Oxford University Press 1951. In summary, a releaser is a perceptual stimulus (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile) that when perceived by a conspecific, "releases" a specific coordinated motor pattern. A more recent reference is I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt's Ethology, either the 1970 or the 1975 version, both available on Amazon.com used for a very low price. There has not been much written on the concept of releasers in the past 25 or so years, as everything that could be said has been said many decades earlier. One fact that is useful to people interested in human ethology, is that the response to a "releaser" is always a coordinated motor pattern, rather than one of the more "flexible" behaviors humans are capable of executing. Also, the threshold for release of a specific coordinated motor pattern to a specific releaser is mood dependent, meaning that the threshold for release of the coordinated motor pattern can go up or down, depending on the organism's current mood. Also, why so little posting on this group for the past few months? Regards, Jay R. Feierman To join the Yahoo Human Ethology group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Cecilia Lambert To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 1:06 PM Subject: Need info on releasers Please, can someone send me some info on releasers. People keep sending me to Wikipedia while at the same time, telling me they don't always have it right. I need some examples and I have some questions. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue Subject: Re: Need info on releasers From: "Jay R. Feierman" Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:18:44 -0600 To: applied-ethology@usask.ca CeAnn, "Releasers" come into play (or "on-line") at different stages of ontogeny (development) of the individual. In some cases a certain level of circulating hormone is necessary for the releasing mechanism (i.e. the "innate releasing mechanism" or IRM), which was organized in utero, to be activated at a later stage of life. For example, if you think of little boys, they don't have much visual attraction to the sinusoidally edged, physical attributes of a nubile human female. However, once their brains are saturated with the activating effects of testosterone at puberty, they develop such an interest and will exhibit approach behavior. With avian species in which imprinting occurs, there exists what is called an "open genetic program." As a result, a newborn gosling or duckling will follow anything within certain size parameters that it sees. We once imprinted a duck on a sheep and a turkey on a basketball! However, the imprinting phenomena in most mammals is not so simple as with birds. In many mammals olfaction is involved. I have never seen this but I have been told that when a mother sheep dies or for some reason does not accept her lamb, one can get a new female sheep, who just gave birth to her own lamb, to accept an orphan lamb if one rubs the placenta of the accepting mother (from her own newborn) sheep on the orphan newborn lamb. With humans, even though a mother can recognize her own newborn's smell from the smell of other human newborns in laboratory tests, there are also visual features to forming the mother (and father) bond with the infant. With many wild (and even domesticated) mammals there is a critical period (or sensitive period) in which the newborn has to be handled by a human for the mammal to be tame and not afraid of humans. This applies to dogs and cats as well as to wild mammals. Regards, Jay R. Feierman To join the Yahoo Human Ethology Group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Cecilia Lambert To: Jay R. Feierman Cc: applied-ethology@usask.ca Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 2:35 PM Subject: Re: Need info on releasers Ok. Now do releasers come into play in the process of imprinting? Say, when an animals eyes are just starting to open and they see shadows and movement. Are the shadows and movements releasers for imprinting? I hope that question makes sense. As to the little amount of posting, I am trying to stope the use of dogs in running pens to kill coyotes and foxes. The coyotes and foxes are used as live bait to train kill dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild. I want to make running pens illegal in IN and also stop the use of dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild in our state. I am making headway. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue --- On Fri, 8/14/09, Jay R. Feierman wrote: From: Jay R. Feierman Subject: Re: Need info on releasers To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 4:08 PM Hello CeAnn, The classic work on releasers is Niko Tinbergen's A Study of Instinct. Oxford University Press 1951. In summary, a releaser is a perceptual stimulus (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile) that when perceived by a conspecific, "releases" a specific coordinated motor pattern. A more recent reference is I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt's Ethology, either the 1970 or the 1975 version, both available on Amazon.com used for a very low price. There has not been much written on the concept of releasers in the past 25 or so years, as everything that could be said has been said many decades earlier. One fact that is useful to people interested in human ethology, is that the response to a "releaser" is always a coordinated motor pattern, rather than one of the more "flexible" behaviors humans are capable of executing. Also, the threshold for release of a specific coordinated motor pattern to a specific releaser is mood dependent, meaning that the threshold for release of the coordinated motor pattern can go up or down, depending on the organism's current mood. Also, why so little posting on this group for the past few months? Regards, Jay R. Feierman To join the Yahoo Human Ethology group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Cecilia Lambert To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 1:06 PM Subject: Need info on releasers Please, can someone send me some info on releasers. People keep sending me to Wikipedia while at the same time, telling me they don't always have it right. I need some examples and I have some questions. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue Subject: Re: Need info on releasers From: Cecilia Lambert Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:43:08 -0700 (PDT) To: "Jay R. Feierman" CC: applied-ethology@usask.ca I have a few imprinted coyotes and one imprinted fox. My other coyotes are socialized, some not so much. Lol CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue --- On Fri, 8/14/09, Jay R. Feierman wrote: From: Jay R. Feierman Subject: Re: Need info on releasers To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 7:18 PM CeAnn, "Releasers" come into play (or "on-line") at different stages of ontogeny (development) of the individual. In some cases a certain level of circulating hormone is necessary for the releasing mechanism (i.e. the "innate releasing mechanism" or IRM), which was organized in utero, to be activated at a later stage of life. For example, if you think of little boys, they don't have much visual attraction to the sinusoidally edged, physical attributes of a nubile human female. However, once their brains are saturated with the activating effects of testosterone at puberty, they develop such an interest and will exhibit approach behavior. With avian species in which imprinting occurs, there exists what is called an "open genetic program." As a result, a newborn gosling or duckling will follow anything within certain size parameters that it sees. We once imprinted a duck on a sheep and a turkey on a basketball! However, the imprinting phenomena in most mammals is not so simple as with birds. In many mammals olfaction is involved. I have never seen this but I have been told that when a mother sheep dies or for some reason does not accept her lamb, one can get a new female sheep, who just gave birth to her own lamb, to accept an orphan lamb if one rubs the placenta of the accepting mother (from her own newborn) sheep on the orphan newborn lamb. With humans, even though a mother can recognize her own newborn's smell from the smell of other human newborns in laboratory tests, there are also visual features to forming the mother (and father) bond with the infant. With many wild (and even domesticated) mammals there is a critical period (or sensitive period) in which the newborn has to be handled by a human for the mammal to be tame and not afraid of humans. This applies to dogs and cats as well as to wild mammals. Regards, Jay R. Feierman To join the Yahoo Human Ethology Group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Cecilia Lambert To: Jay R. Feierman Cc: applied-ethology@usask.ca Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 2:35 PM Subject: Re: Need info on releasers Ok. Now do releasers come into play in the process of imprinting? Say, when an animals eyes are just starting to open and they see shadows and movement. Are the shadows and movements releasers for imprinting? I hope that question makes sense. As to the little amount of posting, I am trying to stope the use of dogs in running pens to kill coyotes and foxes. The coyotes and foxes are used as live bait to train kill dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild. I want to make running pens illegal in IN and also stop the use of dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild in our state. I am making headway. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue --- On Fri, 8/14/09, Jay R. Feierman wrote: From: Jay R. Feierman Subject: Re: Need info on releasers To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 4:08 PM Hello CeAnn, The classic work on releasers is Niko Tinbergen's A Study of Instinct. Oxford University Press 1951. In summary, a releaser is a perceptual stimulus (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile) that when perceived by a conspecific, "releases" a specific coordinated motor pattern. A more recent reference is I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt's Ethology, either the 1970 or the 1975 version, both available on Amazon.com used for a very low price. There has not been much written on the concept of releasers in the past 25 or so years, as everything that could be said has been said many decades earlier. One fact that is useful to people interested in human ethology, is that the response to a "releaser" is always a coordinated motor pattern, rather than one of the more "flexible" behaviors humans are capable of executing. Also, the threshold for release of a specific coordinated motor pattern to a specific releaser is mood dependent, meaning that the threshold for release of the coordinated motor pattern can go up or down, depending on the organism's current mood. Also, why so little posting on this group for the past few months? Regards, Jay R. Feierman To join the Yahoo Human Ethology group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Cecilia Lambert To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 1:06 PM Subject: Need info on releasers Please, can someone send me some info on releasers. People keep sending me to Wikipedia while at the same time, telling me they don't always have it right. I need some examples and I have some questions. CeAnn "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci CeAnn Lambert Indiana Coyote Rescue Center www.coyoterescue.org Please visit our gift shop @ www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue Subject: Re: Need info on releasers From: stammwood Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 07:30:54 -0400 To: applied-ethology@usask.ca Jay/CeAnn, Coincidentally, this post showed up on a livestock guardian list I belong to. I am copying this with her permission, but have removed her contact information as she requested. Thought you'd find it interesting: Regarding goat taming----Several years ago I received a satellite herd of Arapawa Island goats----feral and from New Zealand. Did I capitalize FERAL?? Upon their arrival they went straight into stalls, which we thought were pretty secure having solid wooden walls that went up to five feet, and then were open at the top (as normal stalls are). We found out real quick that we need to enclose that open part with chain link, as they were literally banking off the walls flying around their "space". Now starting with that, time, daily interaction, and food eventually got them to where they were looking forward to being "paid attention to". They tamed down so much that the bucks even enjoyed ear scratches. So all it really takes is that DAILY interaction and you will be there quickly with your doe. And yes, we still have the Arapawas, although the original ones have passed on, we have the next generations. Cissy On Aug 14, 2009, at 7:18 PM, Jay R. Feierman wrote: > CeAnn, > > "Releasers" come into play (or "on-line") at different stages of ontogeny (development) of the individual. In some cases a certain level of circulating hormone is necessary for the releasing mechanism (i.e. the "innate releasing mechanism" or IRM), which was organized in utero, to be activated at a later stage of life. > > For example, if you think of little boys, they don't have much visual attraction to the sinusoidally edged, physical attributes of a nubile human female. However, once their brains are saturated with the activating effects of testosterone at puberty, they develop such an interest and will exhibit approach behavior. > > With avian species in which imprinting occurs, there exists what is called an "open genetic program." As a result, a newborn gosling or duckling will follow anything within certain size parameters that it sees. We once imprinted a duck on a sheep and a turkey on a basketball! > > However, the imprinting phenomena in most mammals is not so simple as with birds. In many mammals olfaction is involved. I have never seen this but I have been told that when a mother sheep dies or for some reason does not accept her lamb, one can get a new female sheep, who just gave birth to her own lamb, to accept an orphan lamb if one rubs the placenta of the accepting mother (from her own newborn) sheep on the orphan newborn lamb. > > With humans, even though a mother can recognize her own newborn's smell from the smell of other human newborns in laboratory tests, there are also visual features to forming the mother (and father) bond with the infant. > > With many wild (and even domesticated) mammals there is a critical period (or sensitive period) in which the newborn has to be handled by a human for the mammal to be tame and not afraid of humans. This applies to dogs and cats as well as to wild mammals. > > Regards, > Jay R. Feierman > > To join the Yahoo Human Ethology Group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Cecilia Lambert > To: Jay R. Feierman > Cc: applied-ethology@usask.ca > Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 2:35 PM > Subject: Re: Need info on releasers > > Ok. Now do releasers come into play in the process of imprinting? Say, when an animals eyes are just starting to open and they see shadows and movement. Are the shadows and movements releasers for imprinting? I hope that question makes sense. > > As to the little amount of posting, I am trying to stope the use of dogs in running pens to kill coyotes and foxes. The coyotes and foxes are used as live bait to train kill dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild. > I want to make running pens illegal in IN and also stop the use of dogs to kill coyotes and foxes in the wild in our state. > I am making headway. > > CeAnn > "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci > > CeAnn Lambert > Indiana Coyote Rescue Center > www.coyoterescue.org > Please visit our gift shop @ > www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue > > > --- On Fri, 8/14/09, Jay R. Feierman wrote: > > > From: Jay R. Feierman > Subject: Re: Need info on releasers > To: applied-ethology@usask.ca > Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 4:08 PM > > Hello CeAnn, > > The classic work on releasers is Niko Tinbergen's A Study of Instinct. Oxford University Press 1951. In summary, a releaser is a perceptual stimulus (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile) that when perceived by a conspecific, "releases" a specific coordinated motor pattern. A more recent reference is I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt's Ethology, either the 1970 or the 1975 version, both available on Amazon.com used for a very low price. There has not been much written on the concept of releasers in the past 25 or so years, as everything that could be said has been said many decades earlier. > > One fact that is useful to people interested in human ethology, is that the response to a "releaser" is always a coordinated motor pattern, rather than one of the more "flexible" behaviors humans are capable of executing. Also, the threshold for release of a specific coordinated motor pattern to a specific releaser is mood dependent, meaning that the threshold for release of the coordinated motor pattern can go up or down, depending on the organism's current mood. > > Also, why so little posting on this group for the past few months? > > Regards, > Jay R. Feierman > > To join the Yahoo Human Ethology group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/ > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Cecilia Lambert > To: applied-ethology@usask.ca > Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 1:06 PM > Subject: Need info on releasers > > Please, can someone send me some info on releasers. People keep sending me to Wikipedia while at the same time, telling me they don't always have it right. > I need some examples and I have some questions. > > CeAnn > > "He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done." Leonardo da Vinci > > CeAnn Lambert > Indiana Coyote Rescue Center > www.coyoterescue.org > Please visit our gift shop @ > www.cafepress.com/coyoterescue Subject: Re: Need info on releasers From: "John R. Lane" Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:42:17 -0700 (PDT) To: "Jay R. Feierman" , applied-ethology@usask.ca Hi CeAnn and Jay, Another very simply put reference to read would be "Learning and Behavior" 2009 sixth edition by Paul Chance. Start from page 12 where it begins discussing Modal Action Patterns and continue to page 16 at the end of the discussion on releasers. It also references a number of later works that help explain this overall concept and relationship as well as the Tinbergin work. It also make the same distinction that Jay makes in that there maybe very few if any true modal action patterns in humans. The role of genetics in human behavior is seen in general behavior traits rather than Modal Action Patterns. John L. Find local businesses and services in your area with Yahoo!7 Local. Get started. Subject: Re: Need info on releasers From: "Jay R. Feierman" Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:25:31 -0600 To: applied-ethology@usask.ca John R. Lane: Hi CeAnn and Jay, Another very simply put reference to read would be "Learning and Behavior" 2009 sixth edition by Paul Chance. Start from page 12 where it begins discussing Modal Action Patterns and continue to page 16 at the end of the discussion on releasers. It also references a number of later works that help explain this overall concept and relationship as well as the Tinbergan work. It also make the same distinction that Jay makes in that there maybe very few if any true modal action patterns in humans. The role of genetics in human behavior is seen in general behavior traits rather than Modal Action Patterns. Jay R. Feierman: I don't know what percent of human behavior falls within the concept of a modal action pattern (aka fixed action pattern, coordinated motor pattern). However, there are more than a very few. For example, almost all of human courtship, copulation, parturition, mother-infant behavior, male:male agonistic dominance/submissive behavior, as well as all of the expressive behaviors (happy, sad, angry, disgust, surprise, fear, and neutral), and components of the greeting and departing ceremonies, etc. are modal action patterns. Because the threshold for release of modal action patterns (the so called "innate releasing mechanism" or IRM) is heritable in dogs, which accounts for lots of the behavioral differences of different dog breeds, there is no reason to presume that the threshold for release of modal action patterns in humans are also not heritable. We just don't "breed" for the differences in humans. As a result, different human societies are more like mixed breed dogs in terms of there being variation within the society in behavioral traits associated with thresholds for releasing modal action patterns. In general, there is more variance within societies than across societies in this sort of thing. However, there are some notable exceptions. One exception is the Navajo. I just returned from three days on the Navajo reservation, where I lived full time between 1971 and 1973. There is definitely a difference in "temperament" between Navajos and European Americans. The Navajo are calmer, quieter, and definitely more patient. These differences are reflected as early as the first day of life, as was demonstrated by the classic experiments of the late Dan Freedman (Department of Human Development, University of Chicago) in the 1960s. He put instruments under the bassinettes of newborn Navajo and European American one day old infants. The Navajo babies moved less, even at one day of age. There are lots of other examples of this quiet, calm, patient temperament with the Navajo. I don't know how to translate that into a modal action pattern. It just seems as though their general excitement and impatience lthreshold is higher. Between 1971 and 1973, I delivered about 300 Navajo babies. Navajo women in labor are for the most part silent, even at the time of birth. Very different from European Americans, African Americans and Latin Americans. One even sees this quiet, calm disposition in Navajo children adopted at birth by Europeans. Prior to about 600 years ago the Navajo of the American Southwest lived in Central Alaska. They are related to the Athabascan Indians who still live in Central Alaska. I suppose that there were selection pressures to be patient and not expend a lot of wasted energy in Central Alaska in the winter time, as it is one of the coldest places on earth. I. Eibesfeldt's book, Human Ethology, is almost entirely about the modal action patterns of humans. See http://www.amazon.com/Human-Ethology-Irenaus-Eibl-Eibesfeldt/dp/0202309703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250377430&sr=1-1 . That book is highly recommended for anyone interested in human ethology. I have done a fair amount of traveling in tribal societies in Africa and Asia and the Pacific Islands. When I go into such societies with my wife, neither of us can speak the tribal language. Yet, we manage to get along just fine in terms of getting our basic needs met. This is all done with body language. The only types of body language that is culturally universal, are modal action patterns. To join the Yahoo Human Ethology group, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/human-ethology/