Nikolaas Tinbergen

Niko Tinbergen
Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (1907-1988)
Born	April 15, 1907 The Hague, Netherlands
Died	December 21, 1988
Residence	UK
Nationality	Dutch
Field	Zoologist, ethologist
Institutions	Oxford University
Alma mater	Leiden University
Notable students	Richard Dawkins
Known for	Hawk/goose effect
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize (1973)

Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (April 15, 1907 – December 21, 1988) was a Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals.

Life

Nikolaas Tinbergen was born in The Hague, Netherlands. Nikolaas — "Niko" — Tinbergen is also noted as the brother of Jan Tinbergen, who won the first Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Jan and Niko had a third eminent brother, Luuk Tinbergen.

Niko 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. Niko 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. After the war, Tinbergen moved to England where he taught at the University of Oxford.

Niko Tinbergen married Elisabeth Rutten.

Work and Contributions

He is well known for originating the four questions he believed should be asked of any animal behaviour, which were:

Proximate mechanisms:

• 1. Causation: 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")
• 2. 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)

Ultimate mechanisms:

• 3. Function (Adaptation): how does the behaviour impact on the animal's chances of survival and reproduction?
• 4. Evolution (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 ethology and sociobiology causation and ontogeny are summarized as the "proximate mechanisms" and adaptation and phylogeny as the "ultimate mechanisms". They are still considered as the cornerstone of modern ethology, sociobiology and transdisciplinarity in Human Sciences.

References concerning the four questions:

Lorenz, Konrad 1937: Biologische Fragestellungen in der Tierpsychologie (in English: Biological Questions in Animal Psychology). Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 1: 24-32

Tinbergen, Niko 1963: On Aims and Methods in Ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 20: 410-433;

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Boring, E.G. 1950. A history of experimental psychology, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0133900398
• Brennan, J.F. 1986. History and systems of psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. ISBN 0133922189
• Galton, F. 1889. Natural inheritance. London; Macmillan.
• Leahey, Th. H. 1991. A History of Modern Psychology. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice Hall. 3rd edition. 2000. ISBN 0130175730

• Pruette, L. 1926. G. Stanley Hall: Biography of a mind. Ayer Co Pub. ISBN 0836954742
• Hans Kruuk (2003) Niko's Nature: The Life of Niko Tinbergen and His Science of Animal Behaviour ISBN 0-19-851558-8
• Marian Stamp Dawkins (1991) The Tinbergen Legacy ISBN 0-412-39120-1
• Richard W. Burkhardt Jr. (2005) Patterns of Behavior : Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and the Founding of Ethology ISBN 0-226-08090-0

External links

• Autobiography
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973: von Frisch, Lorenz and Tinbergen
• Diagram on The Four Areas of Biology
• Further Diagrams on The Four Areas of Biology (Documents No. 9, 10 and 11 in English)

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