9. Ethology 

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.

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.

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.

I'm nearly 53 and can't believe we've reached such time and tech that commoners like me can access this caliber of content.

I love how he always finds a way to sneak a little joke in every now and then...

He makes me love science. That’s the kind of people we need in education.

This lecture series is incredible, as is the fact it's available to the world - fantastic.

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.

"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.

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?

What an honor to watch this man's lectures. Awesome! Thanks uploader!

my God, this guy's sense of humour is just top-notch! Love him!

I’m not even in school or pursuing anything related to his topics. I came across one of his lectures via RU-vid auto-play and I’ve been binge watching this amazing human ever since. 😅

I can’t believe how amazing this man is. I’m glued to anything this man says. I’m so fortunate to find this. Iv learned more in 4 days of watching this than i did in my entire college career.

I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon this guy’s podcasts. So many things answered so lucently. It’s like I don’t have to wander in the dark overwhelmed with ignorance any longer.

Sapolsky is a boss

I really enjoy his sense of humor. Makes it a lot easier to stay engaged. Probably helps remembering things easier too.

I've been going through all of Sapolsky's lectures this has been by far the one most fascinating to me. All the stuff about fixed action patterns, the experiments, examples. WOAH!

I wish all university lecturers could communicate ideas in such an incredibly clear and engaging way. He’s a natural teacher and one gets the sense that he really wants his young students to be as fascinated by the complexity and awesomeness of the natural world as well as how weird we are as a species. He is even very clear about what is going to be important for their approach to studying for the exams, what is going to be most important, what chapters in the “textbooks” they need to read and whether to read them before or after listening to the lecture as well as providing copies of individual published studies that are relevant to the topic and suggesting which ones are worthy of reading in entirety and those where the abstract is sufficient as well as what level of detail they need to memorise for the purposes of the exams. It saves students so much time trying to figure out what’s important for the purposes of the examinations versus all the fascinating information he communicates in his books and lectures. He doesn’t stop talking, but he never gets boring and keeps the logical thread of the topic developing in the right order. He is such a wonderful teacher and communicator, it’s a joy to watch and I learn so much in such a short time.

I've seen an even more impressive demonstration of numeracy in chimps. Chimps can be trained to associate numeral figures with values in terms of a number of treats. They come to associate for example, the numeral "4" with four treats, and recognise that it's bigger than "3". Eventually you get to where you have two chimps that can see each other but not interact. One chimp has to choose from between two numerals, and the number of treats they choose is given to the *other* chimp. The choosing chimp soon learns to always pick the lower value numeral so that the other chimp gets fewer treats than it does. The fun part is, if you replace abstract numerals with actual piles of treats, the choosing chimp *always* selects the greater pile (which then goes to the other chimp). They can deal in abstract numbers but can't get over the instinct to grab the bigger pile of food. I've seen footage of this, and the chimps face-palm when they realise what they have done, so evidently they still know the rules, but can't stop themselves.

"duckies goose-stepping behind Konrad Lorenz"-- brilliant wordplay. Brilliant.

Wow~ I'm totally addicted to this guy!!! I'm VERY greateful for such a fantastic luxury, listening to your lectures in my home here in New Zealand. Worth living well beyond 50s, I thought!!! Sapolsky, you're a star~♡♡♡

This guy is fantastic! I could listen to him all day.

I'm so happy dogs know the difference between kicking it intentionally and tripping over it!

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!

Much better camera-work this time than the first... EIGHT... lectures, but agree with Daniel someone's really excited about their zoom buttons.

God I love these lectures so much, you don't even know how fascinated I get every class.

What do two behaviorists say after sex? "I know it was good for you, was it good for me?"

I love the way he says "lets get going" at the beginning of most lectures. I know it's a random comment.

really appreciating everything about these recordings, you paid attention to sound quality, camera work. it's great. it's actually so refreshing that I am watching this after work

Apart from high school biology I have no formal instruction in the biological sciences. However, I find this guy absolutely fascinating both for his obvious knowledge *and* his presentation. His academic appointment lends credence to the "Ivy League's" claim of uniqueness.

Today, ethologists have discovered that dogs have self-awareness through smell (awareness of their own scent), hence being in the skin of the animal until its own language, to understand it better. 10 years ago and so many modesty and very solid theories still active

Dr. Sapolsky is so awesome, he has changed my life because he has changed my understanding and viewpoint of life. Thank you sir for sharing your brilliance!

9 lectures in, and most of the r/iamverysmart people have been eliminated from the population

I have watched this series twice (... my profile pic and channel content maybe?) All joking aside, this is inarguably the best course lecture series I've ever seen. Had to watch again and when it's republished and the science is updated I will watch a 3rd and 4th time... and I am currently in computer software development / botany.

All of my cats learned to recognize themselves in a mirror. One of my cats learned that and also learned that he could spy on me by watching me in the mirror. When I looked at his image in the mirror, his eyes were watching me. This same cat tried very hard, multiple times, to get his finger beans to grab the doorknob of the front door. He wanted to go out. He had watched me open the door and understood how it was done. If he had had longer fingers he would have succeeded in opening the door for himself. He wanted to go out because his balls were out in the hallway and he wanted me to throw them down the stairs. (I lived on the third floor). He always brought the ball back up the stairs so I could throw it again. His sister stayed in my apartment while he went out to play on the stairs, then got behind the door to push it shut. She did it every time he went out.

The more different environments you study something in the lower your heritability will be. So you need to study in maximally natural and different environments. BF Skinner and Behaviorism. All tabulsa rasa and are environmentally and can be purely reinforcively conditioned. Ethology. The variation of behavior. Contradiction with behaviorists. Tinbergen, Lorenz, Frisch. Species have fixed action patterns which are normalized but can be improved upon. And they have adaptive value. Bees moving in an 8 figure. The fixed action patterns are the own language of the animal. Experiments are strictly natural. Modifying some stimuli what modifies the trajectory or some measured gradation of a property of a fixed action pattern. When females are ovulating their voices go higher, and males can detect this. Visual, and olfactory stimuli. Olfactory. Sweat difference depending on stress quantity. Their amygdala activates if their smelling it from the terrified individuals. Electricity. Vibration. Elephants. Tactile Stimulation. The child goes not the wire with milk, it goes to the cloth for warmth and bonds, Harry Harlow. More incubators the lower the life expectancy. Congruences in babies cross species. People react similarly to baby faces. ------------------ How does a bird learn its specie (rough) song Lordosis reflex in hamsters. What does learning have to do with fixed action patterns. Animals teach behavior (eg. to progeny.) Animals make tools. Use wood as weapons. Learning that violates reinforcement theory. Animals will imprint on something over a short period, (recognizing mom, there is a short period). No trial and error! Critical period is a relative term.* Prepared learning. Certain associations with something are more likely than others. He had prepared learning with food much more than external stimuli. Humans show prepared learning for being afraid of spiders and snakes. Change in a flash and we can pick up a snake or a spider. ( ) discovered echolocation. Published on the book animal awareness. Do animals have self awareness? Marmasets never look at themselves in the eye. Theory of Mind. When do you realize there are other individuals who are different? Chimps can only do theory of mind in highly competitive dynamical states. -These animals can detect intentional and unintentional gestures. -plan for the future. Flexible cognitive strategies/possibility/probability sense.

I love waking up to these lectures. This guy's is great

Fixed Action Pattern abbreviated is FAP !

I watched up until the break; Boys and Girls, this is officially *a banger* of a lecture. Joyfully educated.

I never considered behaviourism this way... I love this course because Prof. Sapolsky connects my undergrad knowledge in a different way. A different way that makes a lot more sense!

anyone else binging this whole class? I'm a day in (at 1.5 speed at least) and going strong

im so glad i found someone i can understand ! and enjoy your lectures thank you. very good teacher .

Thanks again, Doc. Love this class. It is amazing how much there is to learn. Go Stanford!

Sapolsky is a gazillion times better than any other living teacher in the world that i know of, and he's great at giving these super complex introductions to new buckets and explaining how Nepalese are better than Belgians or whatever a good teacher is teaching his students there. so, that's great.

I've watched this series every year for years now

If this was my teacher when i was growing up id be a scientist for sure. This mans amazing

He's brilliant, and I love his sense of humor

I think this is one of my favorites in the series. Really fascinating stuff.

This particular lecture for me was the most enjoyable.

I always pack for trips while listening to this series! Haha great series!!!

I've seen a squirrel try to bury an acorn when there was no dirt to bury it in. It was weird seeing it's little paws move imaginary dirt on top of the acorn

Thank you for sharing this lecture. It has changed how I operate in my life.

Brilliant, enjoy it so much! What an amazing profession!

soy guionista, de otro campo diferente. este hombre realmente me inspira. love you man,

Great lecture! Really helpful, he's an example for instructors.

Stanford RU-vid lectures, eleven years have passed. Can we upgrade the video to HD, as I can not read the board on my 4k tv, and a more current lecture series. (Over ten years one would think science knows more as time progresses.) Thank-you. I love this series of lectures.

I payed more attention to these lectures than some of the actual classes I took this semester

I wish they would post the TA catch-up lectures, but I'm not complaining I just crave more knowledge.

The word you're looking for, for male deer, is Buck :) - A Canadian

Good lecture. I’m pleased that these methods match my ideas of approach. We’ll see how the rest goes

I love this guy and these lectures

This is fantastic information, as always with this guy

Awesome Professor, I look forward to learning more.

This is the most interesting lecture i've watched so far

THE INCREDIBLY LEARNED PROFESSOR SAPOLSKY No doubt, our good professor's favorite adjective is INCREDIBLE, closely followed by EXTREME, and distant others, such as COMPLEX, DIFFICULT, etc. INCREDIBLY COMPLEX is a wonderful description of behavior biology. Our own description is... INCREDIBLY FASCINATING!

Reminding us about what it is to be (a) human

The “beedance” First of all I have to say that my previous note that bees do not dance on the floor of the hive, on the horizontal flat floor of the hive, but on the vertical honeycombs does not add to or remove anything from the excellent presentation and analysis made by Professor Sapolsky . It is just a detail that strengthens what the professor presents in his analysis and to which he is probably aware of. He is probably aware that dancing is taking place on the vertical honeycombs rather than on the horizontal floor but he wanted to present the subject in a simpler way. The fact that the floor is a space that the 40 to 60 thousand bees of the hive use only to climb on the honeycombs they crowd, is known by all beekeepers. But the fact that dancing takes place on the vertical honeycombs also introduces the gravitational field of the earth, making the problem a little more complex. I want to say that the bees dancing on the vertical honeycombs inside the dark hive transmit a gravitational signal, a gravitational information, if you want a touch-type information, which when the bees who get it come out at the entrance of the hive in the daylight, convert into visual information. We do not know by what mechanisms within the bee's body a gravitational touch information is transformed into visual information, we only know that by dancing the 8 formed dance, bees who follow the dancing of the collector fieldbee suffer the same relative inclinations of their body parts (head, chest and abdomen) depending on the slope of the symmetry axis which is perpendicular to the lobes of the 8. This axis is correlated with the gravitational line, an angle is formed between them with one leg the line of gravity and the other leg the symmetry axis of the 8. When the bees come out to daylight follow a course determined by an angle that is the same as the angle that was written in the dark hive on the vertical combs, now one leg is the straight line joining the hive with the projection of the Sun on the horizon on a horizontal plane and the other leg is the one with the hive as angletop passes from the point where the flowering is located. We see, therefore, that a gravitational information has been transformed into visual, electromagnetic information. Researchers were able to interrupt the flow of information either by sealing the eyes of the bees who could no longer see where the sun was relative to the flower, or by cutting some of the small bristles between the three parts of the insect body (head, chest, and abdomen) and which transmit the sensation of tilt to the nervous system and the brain of the bee. As I said above, nothing removes or adds something to what the professor teaches. It is just a detail which shows that besides the information governed by the electromagnetic light field, we have an information phase within the gravitational field, making the image more complex (and more amazing). Yannis Alexakis.

His teachings are enjoyable.

"Elephants communicate through vibrations in their feet." Mind blown.

Omg that BRAIN... 😍

I got dizzy watching you pace back and forth. Just learning for fun. Thank you.

I love this guy. Brilliant and engaging 👌

In the Netflix documentary Babies they show this study by an American psychologist who showed that babies ages 18 months or older can actually distingish between themselves and other people in that they understand that different people might prefer different kinds of food. the "broccoli and crackers experiment"

From pop culture, I always got the impression that scientists were these highly educated, serious, lab-coat clad, eccentric people. After this lecture, I picture a group of highly educated, serious, lab-coat clad people tickling mice, patting the rear end of hamsters and using styrofoam females to mess with horny male turkey...

This is why I have a bone to pick with the "Mouse Utopia" experiment. It's more ideology than science.

JFI Sauce Bernaise, is one of the 4 claissic butter based sauces which are derived from Olandese saucewhich requires, a white whine, vinegar, black pepper, shallot reduction, which is wisked with egg yol and then emulsion with clarified butter. its usually seasoned with a bit of lemon juice, worchester sauce, and salt. that is the Olandeise, Bernaise is olandaise with chopped pickled tarragon, Foyot is olandaise with meat glaze and Chorono is Olandaise with tomato sauce

This guy would never be bold despite being smart 🤩👏👌 Biology is so awesome

I may be mistaken, but I think that Skinner's science is still going strong. He and the behavioral science from his approach are being as misrepresented as ever, but it's a science and as such it can only be improved or replaced by something more accurate. Skinner showed us how behavior is selected, conditioned, and or otherwise controlled by environment. Advertising, autism, and videogames all employ tools that are a result of what Skinner discovered. Thinking based on illusion is thinking.

1:26:04 here he says that all spieces on Earth have self-awareness (except a kind of monkeys), but I remember an experiment in a previous lecture when they put a mirror infront of a fish when it start attacking itself, then they put the mirror beside it (here it thought that it's image is helping it), and finally when putting the mirror beside it with an angle (here it first thought that it's image is helping it; but then cheating on it).....I mean (my whole point is) how this fish can't recognize itself?

what an amazing lecture to this day.

These findings are almost mystical for me!

Why they didn't suppress the coughing person from day 1? It's such a cruel thing to let an animal struggle and suffer for so long...

Sapolsky!!!!!!!

I love him, he has a great vibe

You are the best Robert !

Very intellectual man.

wish I could get some basic cerification for completing this series. Like a set of quizzes & resources for $200, with a little mailed "6/mo Certification: Behavioral Bio - Stanford"

Love this Professor!

It's like Stanford has a contract with RU-vid that demands it's videos rank highly in the my 3:00 a.m. algorithms. And I am not mad about it.

Recognising ones reflection in the mirror does not demonstrate self awareness. Rather, it demonstrates an understanding of reflection and an awareness that the image is NOT yourself but a representation of yourself. All animals have self awareness but not all have an understanding of higher order representation.

the slots didnt freak out when they were on top of glass because sloths are so lazy they dont care to freak out

All I got outta this was bees twerk on the dance floor when they've found food

i d love to have him as a mentor to discuss a gazillion of questions. wow

Will Stanford give him an electricity shock if he stops talking?

sauce béarnaise is really good ;)

I love the way how explain science ❤

The Sally-Anne experiment blew my brain

This makes me wonder if consciousness itself is an illusion. If animals do all these things instinctively doesn't it make it possible that we are just doing everything by instinct and only imagine that there is more to it?