Who is known for summarizing four basic questions to study animal behavior?

Nico Tinbergen is well-known for summarizing four fundamental questions that provide a comprehensive framework for studying animal behavior. These questions focus on different aspects of behavior: the mechanism of behavior (how it works at the physiological level), the development of behavior (how it develops over the animal's lifetime), the adaptive function of behavior (how it benefits the animal in terms of survival and reproduction), and the evolutionary history of behavior (how it has changed over time through evolution). This classification helps researchers to analyze behavior from multiple perspectives, offering a holistic view of how and why animals act in certain ways.

In contrast, other prominent figures, while significant in their contributions to the field of animal behavior and biology, do not specifically articulate these four questions. Charles Darwin is recognized for his theory of evolution and natural selection, which lays a foundation for understanding behavior from an evolutionary perspective, but he did not formalize the framework relevant to analyzing animal behavior in the same way as Tinbergen. Konrad Lorenz is noted for his work on imprinting and ethology, focusing on specific behavioral patterns, while B.F. Skinner is famous for his research on operant conditioning and behaviorism in psychology, emphasizing learning processes rather than a broad analytical framework for all behavior.