fixed action patterns - 2026 ACF Regionals

Question

Konrad Lorenz likened the “vacuum activity” type of these phenomena to a hydraulic container with an outlet at the top and rising water levels to increasing motivation. For 10 points each:

[10m] Name these innate and highly stereotyped phenomena known by a three-word acronym. Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen observed these phenomena in geese that continued to retrieve eggs even after their removal.

ANSWER: fixed action patterns [or FAPs; accept modal action patterns or MAPs; prompt on instincts or instinctual behaviors; prompt on imprinting or imprinted behaviors]

[10h] Intense selection pressure can result in exaggerated stimuli denoted by this term. Tinbergen coined this term after observing herring gulls preferred to peck a red stick with yellow markings over a model of an actual bird head.

ANSWER: supernormal stimuli [prompt on superstimuli]

[10e] Other animals often “code-break” fixed action patterns by generating a decoy supernormal stimulus in this type of interaction. Cuckoos lay their own eggs in reed warbler nests in the “brood” form of this interaction.

ANSWER: parasitism [or parasitic behavior or parasites; accept brood parasitism or brood parasitic behavior or brood parasites; prompt on symbiosis or symbiotic behavior]

<AL, Biology>

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Summary


California (North)	Main Site	Y	3	13.33	100%	33%	0%
California (South)	Main Site	Y	4	10.00	75%	25%	0%
Canada	Main Site	Y	10	12.00	100%	10%	10%
Florida	Main Site	Y	3	10.00	100%	0%	0%
Great Lakes	Main Site	Y	5	12.00	100%	20%	0%
Lower Mid-Atlantic	Main Site	Y	9	8.89	78%	11%	0%
Midwest	Main Site	Y	8	12.50	88%	38%	0%
Northeast	Main Site	Y	6	10.00	67%	33%	0%
Overflow	Main Site	Y	4	10.00	75%	25%	0%
South Central	Main Site	Y	2	10.00	100%	0%	0%
Southeast	Main Site	Y	7	11.43	86%	29%	0%
UK	Main Site	Y	12	10.83	100%	8%	0%
Upper Mid-Atlantic	Main Site	Y	8	17.50	100%	75%	0%
Upstate NY	Main Site	Y	4	7.50	75%	0%	0%

Data


Stanford A	Berkeley A	0	0	10	10
Berkeley B	Berkeley D	10	0	10	20
UC Irvine	UC Santa Barbara	0	0	0	0
UCSD C	UCSD B	0	0	10	10
Berkeley C	Stanford B	0	0	10	10
Toronto B	Carleton University	0	0	10	10
Waterloo B	Guelph	0	0	10	10
McGill B	Western C	0	0	10	10
Brock	McMaster B	0	0	10	10
Waterloo A	Ottawa	10	10	10	30
Queen's	Simon Fraser	0	0	10	10
Toronto D	Toronto C	0	0	10	10
McMaster A	Toronto F	0	0	10	10
UBC A	Western A	0	0	10	10
Toronto Metropolitan	Western B	0	0	10	10
UCLA A	Arizona State	0	0	10	10
UCLA B	UCSD A	10	0	10	20
Florida B	Central Florida A	0	0	10	10
Florida A	Central Florida B	0	0	10	10
Florida C	Central Florida C	0	0	10	10
Michigan A	Michigan B	10	0	10	20
Ohio State A	Michigan C	0	0	10	10
CWRU A	Ohio State B	0	0	10	10
Ohio State C	CWRU B	0	0	10	10
NC State A	Duke	0	0	10	10
Virginia Tech B	James Madison A	0	0	10	10
James Madison B	VCU	0	0	0	0
Liberty A	Liberty C	0	0	0	0
Virginia	NC State B	0	0	10	10
William and Mary	North Carolina A	0	0	10	10
South Carolina A	Wake Forest	10	0	10	20
North Carolina C	South Carolina B	0	0	10	10
Virginia Tech A	Liberty B	0	0	10	10
Michigan State	Pittsburgh	0	0	10	10
Illinois A	Illinois B	10	0	10	20
Indiana A	Purdue B	10	0	10	20
Notre Dame A	Northwestern B	10	0	10	20
Notre Dame B	Chicago D	0	0	0	0
Purdue A	Indiana C	0	0	10	10
Chicago A	Indiana B	0	0	10	10
Harvard A	Brandeis B	10	0	10	20
Southern Connecticut State	Dartmouth A	0	0	0	0
Harvard B	Bowdoin A	0	0	10	10
Yale	Bowdoin B	0	0	10	10
Dartmouth B	Brandeis A	0	0	0	0
MIT	Brown	10	0	10	20
Northwestern C	Chicago E	0	0	10	10
Illinois C	Northwestern D	0	0	10	10
Washington A	Claremont	0	0	10	10
Texas B	Texas A&M A	0	0	10	10
Murray State A	Texas A	0	0	10	10
Minnesota A	Missouri A	0	0	10	10
Georgia Tech A	Washington B	10	0	10	20
Bruin	Alabama A	10	0	10	20
Alabama B	Louisville B	0	0	0	0
Georgia Tech C	Kentucky	0	0	10	10
Louisville A	Mississipi State	10	0	10	20
Tennessee B	Georgia Tech D	0	0	10	10
Sewanee	Vanderbilt B	0	0	10	10
Georgia Tech B	WashU B	0	0	10	10
Missouri B	Iowa State	0	0	0	0
Imperial B	Birmingham	10	0	10	20
Edinburgh A	Cambridge A	0	0	10	10
Imperial A	Bristol	0	0	10	10
Imperial C	City St. George's	0	0	10	10
Durham	LSE	0	0	10	10
Warwick A	Manchester	0	0	10	10
Southampton A	Montpellier	0	0	10	10
Cambridge B	Oxford A	0	0	10	10
Oxford B	Cambridge C	0	0	10	10
Oxford C	Southampton B	0	0	10	10
Columbia A	Georgetown	10	0	10	20
John Jay	Columbia C	10	0	10	20
Johns Hopkins A	Maryland B	10	0	10	20
Johns Hopkins B	Vassar	0	0	10	10
NYU A	Rutgers B	10	0	10	20
NYU B	Maryland C	10	0	10	20
Columbia B	NYU C	0	0	10	10
Rutgers A	Swarthmore	10	0	10	20
Cardiff	Warwick B	0	0	10	10
Binghamton A	Binghamton B	0	0	0	0
Cornell A	Cornell C	0	0	10	10
Penn State	RIT	0	0	10	10
Cornell B	Rochester	0	0	10	10
Edinburgh B	UCL	0	0	10	10