Nikolaas Tinbergen
Niko Tinbergen | |
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Born | Nikolaas Tinbergen 15 April 1907 The Hague, Netherlands |
Died | 21 December 1988 Oxford, England | (aged 81)
Alma mater | Leiden University |
Known for |
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Spouse | Elisabeth Rutten (1912–1988) |
Children | 5 |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | University of Oxford |
Doctoral advisor | Hilbrand Boschma[2] |
Doctoral students |
Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen
In 1951, he published The Study of Instinct, an influential book on animal behaviour. In the 1960s, he collaborated with filmmaker Hugh Falkus on a series of wildlife films, including The Riddle of the Rook (1972) and Signals for Survival (1969), which won the Italia prize in that year and the American blue ribbon in 1971.
Early life and education
Born in
Tinbergen's interest in nature manifested itself when he was young. He studied biology at Leiden University and was a prisoner of war during World War II. Tinbergen's experience as a prisoner of the Nazis led to some friction with longtime intellectual collaborator Konrad Lorenz, and it was several years before the two reconciled.[14]
After the war, Tinbergen moved to England, where he taught at the University of Oxford and was a fellow first at Merton College, Oxford, and later at Wolfson College, Oxford.[14] Several of his graduate students went on to become prominent biologists including Richard Dawkins,[4] Marian Dawkins,[3] Desmond Morris,[6] Iain Douglas-Hamilton,[15] and Tony Sinclair.[16]
The Study of Instinct
In 1951 Tinbergen's The Study of Instinct was published. Behavioural ecologists and evolutionary biologists still recognise the contribution this book offered the field of
In particular, he was interested in explaining 'spontaneous' behaviours: those that occurred in their complete form the first time they were performed and that seemed resistant to the effects of learning. He explains how behaviour can be considered a combination of these spontaneous behaviour patterns and as set series of reactions to particular stimuli. Behaviour is a reaction in that to a certain extent it is reliant on external stimuli, however it is also spontaneous since it is also dependent upon internal causal factors.[17]
His model for how certain behavioural reactions are provoked was based on work by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz postulated that for each instinctive act there is a specific energy which builds up in a reservoir in the brain. In this model, Lorenz envisioned a reservoir with a spring valve at its base that an appropriate stimulus could act on, much like a weight on a scale pan pulling against a spring and releasing the reservoir of energy, an action which would lead an animal to express the desired behaviour.[17]
Tinbergen added complexity to this model, a model now known as Tinbergen's hierarchical model. He suggested that motivational impulses build up in nervous centres in the brain which are held in check by blocks. The blocks are removed by an innate releasing mechanism that allows the energy to flow to the next centre (each centre containing a block that needs to be removed) in a cascade until the behaviour is expressed. Tinbergen's model shows multiple levels of complexity and that related behaviours are grouped.[18]
An example is in his experiments with foraging
Nobel Prize
In 1973 Tinbergen, along with Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns".[20] The award recognised their studies on genetically programmed behaviour patterns, their origins, maturation and their elicitation by key stimuli. In his Nobel Lecture, Tinbergen addressed the somewhat unconventional decision of the Nobel Foundation to award the prize for Physiology or Medicine to three men who had until recently been regarded as "mere animal watchers". Tinbergen stated that their revival of the "watching and wondering" approach to studying behaviour could indeed contribute to the relief of human suffering.[21]
The studies performed by the trio on fish, insects and birds laid the foundation for further studies on the importance of specific experiences during critical periods of normal development, as well as the effects of abnormal psychosocial situations in mammals. At the time, these discoveries were stated to have caused "a breakthrough in the understanding of the mechanisms behind various symptoms of psychiatric disease, such as anguish, compulsive obsession, stereotypic behaviour and catatonic posture".[22] Tinbergen's contribution to these studies included the testing of the hypotheses of Lorenz/von Frisch by means of "comprehensive, careful, and ingenious experiments"[23] as well as his work on supernormal stimuli. The work of Tinbergen during this time was also regarded as having possible implications for further research in child development and behaviour.[24]
He also caused some intrigue by dedicating a large part of his acceptance speech to
Other awards and honours
In 1950 Tinbergen became member of the
Approach to animal behaviour
Tinbergen described four questions he believed should be asked of any animal behaviour,[33][34][35][36] which were:
- Causation (mechanism): what are the stimuli that elicit the response, and how has it been modified by recent learning? How do behaviour and psyche "function" on the molecular, physiological, neuro-ethological, cognitive and social level, and what do the relations between the levels look like? (compare: Nicolai Hartmann: "The laws about the levels of complexity")
- Development (ontogeny): how does the behaviour change with age, and what early experiences are necessary for the behaviour to be shown? Which developmental steps (the ontogenesis follows an "inner plan") and which environmental factors play when / which role? (compare: Recapitulation theory)
- Function (behaviourimpact on the animal's chances of survival and reproduction?
- phylogeny): how does the behaviour compare with similar behaviour in related species, and how might it have arisen through the process of phylogeny? Why did structural associations (behaviour can be seen as a "time space structure") evolve in this manner and not otherwise?*
In
Supernormal stimulus
A major body of Tinbergen's research focused on what he termed the supernormal stimulus. This was the concept that one could build an artificial object which was a stronger stimulus or releaser for an instinct than the object for which the instinct originally evolved. He constructed plaster eggs to see which a bird preferred to sit on, finding that they would select those that were larger, had more defined markings, or more saturated colour—and a dayglo-bright one with black polka dots would be selected over the bird's own pale, dappled eggs.
Tinbergen found that territorial male three-spined stickleback (a small freshwater fish) would attack a wooden fish model more vigorously than a real male if its underside was redder. He constructed cardboard dummy butterflies with more defined markings that male butterflies would try to mate with in preference to real females. The superstimulus, by its exaggerations, clearly delineated what characteristics were eliciting the instinctual response.
Among the modern works calling attention to Tinbergen's classic work is Deirdre Barrett's 2010 book, Supernormal Stimuli.
Autism
Tinbergen applied his observational methods to the problems of autistic children. He recommended a "holding therapy" in which parents hold their autistic children for long periods of time while attempting to establish eye contact, even when a child resists the embrace.[37] However, his interpretations of autistic behaviour, and the holding therapy that he recommended, lacked scientific support[38] and the therapy has been described as controversial and potentially abusive, particularly by individuals with autism themselves.[39]
Bibliography
Some of the publications of Tinbergen are:
- 1939: 'The Behavior of the Snow Bunting in Spring.' In: Transactions of the Linnaean Society of New York, vol. V (October 1939). OCLC 885412024
- 1951: The Study of Instinct. Oxford, Clarendon Press. OCLC 249804809
- 1952: Derived activities; their causation, biological significance, origin, and emancipation during evolution. Q. Rev. Biol. 27:1–32. doi:10.1086/398642. [1].
- 1953: The Herring Gull's World. London, Collins. OCLC 781602203
- 1953: Social Behaviour in Animals: With Special Reference to Vertebrates. Methuen & Co. (print & eBook)
Publications about Tinbergen and his work:
- Burkhardt Jr., RW (2005). Patterns of Behavior : Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and the Founding of Ethology. ISBN 0-226-08090-0
- Kruuk, H (2003). Niko's Nature: The Life of Niko Tinbergen and His Science of Animal Behaviour. Oxford, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-851558-8
- Stamp Dawkins, M; Halliday, TR; Dawkins, R (1991). The Tinbergen Legacy. London, Chapman & Hall. ISBN 0-412-39120-1
Personal life
Tinbergen was a member of the advisory committee to the Anti-Concorde Project[citation needed] and was also an atheist.[40]
Tinbergen married Elisabeth Rutten (1912–1990) and they had five children. Later in life he suffered depression and feared he might, like his brother Luuk, commit suicide. He was treated by his friend, whose ideas he had greatly influenced, John Bowlby.[41] Tinbergen died on 21 December 1988, after suffering a stroke at his home in Oxford, England.[1]
References
- ^ .
- ^ Burkhardt, R. W. Jr. (2010). "Niko Tinbergen" (PDF). Elsevier. pp. 428–433. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
- ^ EThOS uk.bl.ethos.453252. Archived from the originalon 12 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
- ^ EThOS uk.bl.ethos.710826.
- ^ "Aubrey Manning". University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
- ^ .
- ^ Tinbergen autobiography at nobelprize.org
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973: von Frisch, Lorenz and Tinbergen
- ^ Tinbergen Nobel Lecture
- PMID 14584992.
- S2CID 54236399.
- ^ Lundberg, Erik (1969). "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1969". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
- ^ "Nobel Prize Facts".
- ^ a b "Encyclopedia.com Nikolaas Tinbergen". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-231-50377-8.
- ISBN 9780199645527.
- ^ a b c Hinde, R. A. Ethological Models and the Concept of 'Drive'. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 6, 321–331 (1956)
- ^ Tinbergen, Nikolaas (1951). The Study of Instinct. Oxford University Press. pp. nnn–mmm.[page needed]
- ^ Tinbergen, Nikolaas (1951). The Study of Instinct. Oxford University Press. pp. nnn–mmm.[page needed]
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973".
- ^ Tinbergen, N. Ethology and stress diseases. Physiology Or Medicine: 1971–1980 19711980, 113 (1992)
- ^ Zetterström, R. The Nobel Prize for the introduction of ethology, or animal behaviour, as a new research field: possible implications for child development and behaviour: Nobel prizes of importance to Paediatrics. Acta Paediatrica 96, 1105–1108 (2007).
- ^ Cronholm, Börje (1973). "Award Ceremony Speech". Nobelprize.org.
- ^ Zetterström, R. The Nobel Prize for the introduction of ethology, or animal behaviour, as a new research field: possible implications for child development and behaviour: Nobel prizes of importance to Paediatrics. Acta Paediatrica 96, 1105–1108 (2007)
- ^ Tinbergen, Nikolaas (12 December 1973). "Nikolaas Tinbergen Nobel Lecture Ethology and Stress Diseases" (PDF). NobelPrize.org.
- ^ "Niko Tinbergen (1907–1988)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
- ^ "Nikolaas Tinbergen". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
- ^ "Nikolaas Tinbergen". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
- ^ "Medals and awards " British Ornithologists' Union". bou.org.uk. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ Amsterdam, Universiteit van. "Swammerdam medaille – GNGH – Universiteit van Amsterdam". gngh.uva.nl. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ISBN 978-0199922659.
- ^ Diagram on The Four Areas of Biology
- ^ Further Diagrams on The Four Areas of Biology by Gerhard Medicus (Documents No. 6, 7 and 8 of Block 1 in English)
- . (in English: Biological Questions in Animal Psychology).
- .
- ISBN 978-0-04-157011-3.
- PMID 18038335.
- ISBN 978-0-415-99931-1. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-393-06848-1.
Tinbergen had never been a religious man. Wartime atrocities, however, had highlighted the absence of a deity for him while both sides invoked one aligned with themselves, and this turned him into a militant atheist.
- .
External links
- Nikolaas Tinbergen on Nobelprize.org
Media related to Nikolaas Tinbergen at Wikimedia Commons