Tinbergen’s 4 questions: the levels of biological explanation

Niko Tinbergen, one of the fathers of ethology, proposes to explain behavior through 4 questions.

Human beings have always questioned the origin and causes of the things that happen to them. The application of this curiosity for knowledge to the field of biology has given rise to ethology, among other branches of science.

One of the fathers of this science is Nikolaas Tinbergen, a zoologist who made several contributions to the study of living beings. Among them, we find what is known as Tinbergen's 4 questionsTinbergen's 4 questions, an effort to sort out the questions to be answered about the biology and behavior of any animal (including humans).

What is the function of a behavior, how does it develop, evolve and what causes it? If you want to know these answers, read on.

Background: the beginnings of biology.

Aristotle already stated that "to know something scientifically is to know its causes". He also established 4 types of causes: material, formal, efficient and final.. This can be considered a precedent to Tinbergen's questions, since it was intended to be the starting point for the inquiries of any researcher who wanted to study nature.

Before Tinbergen, around 1930, Julian Huxley spoke of three major problems in biology: causation, survival value and evolution. It was Niko Tinbergen who added the fourth: ontogeny, that is, the development of each individual from birth to death. On the other hand, Ernst Mayr in 1961 spoke of proximate cause and ultimate cause.

What are Tinbergen's 4 questions?

Niko Tinbergen, considered one of the fathers of ethology, was a Dutch zoologist born in 1907. In 1973 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, together with Konrad Lorenz and Kar von Frisch, for their discoveries in relation to individual and social behavior patterns..

Tinbergen, in his article On aims and methods of ethology of 1963, proposes the existence of 4 main problems of biology, or Tinbergen's 4 questions, which are levels of Biological explanation.which are levels of biological explanation of certain phenomena of nature.

Tinbergen poses these questions with the aim of understanding a behavior, and they are the following.

Cause or mechanism: What is the cause of the behavior?

It represents the proximate or structural cause. These are internal and external stimuli that trigger the behavior..

Here, the sensory receptors play a key role in allowing us to perceive the information provided by such stimuli.

Survival value: How does such behavior contribute to the survival and reproductive success of the animal?

It represents the ultimate cause. That is, the function, adaptation or adaptive advantage of the behavior.

Ontogeny: How does the behavior develop during the animal's lifetime?

It has to do with the possible changes and evolution that a behavioral pattern undergoes throughout the life of individuals.

Evolution: How has the behavior evolved?

Also called phylogeny. It studies the phylogenetic history of such behavior, i.e., of the precursors of the behavior.. This makes it possible to understand why behavior is the way it is today, and not some other way.

The levels of biological explanation

Relating Tinbergen to Mayr, we see that proximate causes (immediate in time) would encompass mechanism and ontogeny, and evolutionary causes (more distant or distal) would include survival value and phylogeny.

Thus, the former would explain the structure and mechanisms of behavior, and the latter, why organisms are the way they are.

Practical example

To illustrate Tinbergen's questions, let's look at an example. It is somewhat indicative to give us an idea, but the answers will always vary from one case to another.

Let's think of a child who hits others when he gets angry. Let us analyze the components of such behavior according to Tinbergen's 4 questions.

Cause

It may be due to irritability, low frustration tolerance, lack of other emotional containment skills, etc.

Function

To attract attention, to vent anger, to show irritability in order to be attended to.

Ontogeny

It develops and repeats itself because it has previously shown similar behaviors and these have been reinforced at some point.

Evolution

The child has seen how its siblings were reinforced for such behavior, and reproduces it.

Implications for science

As we have seen, we can break down and analyze the components of every animal behavior that we can think ofAlthough evidently not all behaviors will have the same function, much less the same adaptive value.

There will be behaviors that are more adaptive than others, and these will probably be the ones that will be repeated in the evolutionary chain and those that will be consolidated in a more consolidated way. those that will consolidate more stably in a species..

Today, 50 years after the publication of that article, Tinbergen's 4 questions are still considered as one of the most important and valuable legacies of the author, due to the importance he gives to his comprehensive and multifaceted vision of a behavior.

Author's view and conclusion

Tinbergen gave a pragmatic character to his theory, as well as a logical one, which makes his work a useful and complete tool for understanding behavior. He was one of the first to study the adaptive significance of behaviors for example, he studied the behavior of black-headed gulls in removing the eggshells from the nest once their chicks hatched.

The author believed that grouping problems together would facilitate the understanding of behaviorand considered it a fundamental part of ethology. In any case, he always opted not only for integrating behaviors, but also for studying them individually, thus acquiring an analytical and global vision of the behavior or problem at the same time.

Tinbergen's 4 questions are apparently simple, but at the same time synthetic, since they lead us to a complete understanding of a biological or behavioral phenomenon.

Bibliographical references:

• Donal, A. (1999). The proximate and the ultimate: past, present and future. Behavioral Processes, 189-199.
• Bateson, P. & Laland, K. (2013). Tinbergen's four questions: an appreciation and an update. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 28(12), 712-718.