1
|
Poissonnier LA, Danchin E, Isabel G. Male attractiveness is subjective to exposure to males of different attractiveness in fruit flies. Sci Rep 2024; 14:16463. [PMID: 39014083 PMCID: PMC11252249 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-66930-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Mate choice is a crucial decision in any animal. In terms of fitness, the best mate is the one that leads to the most abundant and productive offspring. Pairing with a low-quality mate would reduce fitness, generating selection for accurate and subtle mate choice in all animal species. Hence, mate choice is expected to be highly context dependent, and should depend on other potential options. For instance, a medium-quality male can constitute the best option when all other males are in poorer condition, but not when there are better-quality males available. Therefore, animals are predicted to gather information about their social context and adapt their mate choice to it. Here, we report on experiments in which we manipulated the social environment of females of Drosophila melanogaster and found that after encountering a high or a low-quality male, they take more or less time to accept copulation with another male, suggesting that females adapt their mating strategy to their social context. We also report on a similar effect in D. biarmiceps. Thus, male attractiveness appears to depend on the quality of recently met males, suggesting that male attractiveness is subjective, indicating plastic and context dependent mate choice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laure-Anne Poissonnier
- Centre de Recherches Sur La Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), UMR 5169, CNRS, Université de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France.
| | - Etienne Danchin
- Centre de Recherches Sur La Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), UMR 5169, CNRS, Université de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, University of Toulouse 3, Toulouse, France
| | - Guillaume Isabel
- Centre de Recherches Sur La Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), UMR 5169, CNRS, Université de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Izakson L, Yoo M, Hakim A, Krajbich I, Webb R, Levy DJ. Valuations of target items are drawn towards unavailable decoy items due to prior expectations. PNAS NEXUS 2024; 3:pgae232. [PMID: 38948017 PMCID: PMC11214102 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024]
Abstract
When people make choices, the items they consider are often embedded in a context (of other items). How this context affects the valuation of the specific item is an important question. High-value context might make items appear less attractive because of contrast-the tendency to normalize perception of an object relative to its background-or more attractive because of assimilation-the tendency to group objects together. Alternatively, a high-value context might increase prior expectations about the item's value. Here, we investigated these possibilities. We examined how unavailable context items affect choices between two target items, as well as the willingness-to-pay for single targets. Participants viewed sets of three items for several seconds before the target(s) were highlighted. In both tasks, we found a significant assimilation-like effect where participants were more likely to choose or place a higher value on a target when it was surrounded by higher-value context. However, these context effects were only significant for participants' fastest choices. Using variants of a drift-diffusion model, we established that the unavailable context shifted participants' prior expectations towards the average values of the sets but had an inconclusive effect on their evaluations of the targets during the decision (i.e. drift rates). In summary, we find that people use context to inform their initial valuations. This can improve efficiency by allowing people to get a head start on their decision. However, it also means that the valuation of an item can change depending on the context.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Liz Izakson
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Minhee Yoo
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Adam Hakim
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Ian Krajbich
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Ryan Webb
- Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 105 St George St., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3E6, Canada
| | - Dino J Levy
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
- Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Devine S, da Silva Castanheira K, Fleming SM, Otto AR. Distinguishing between intrinsic and instrumental sources of the value of choice. Cognition 2024; 245:105742. [PMID: 38350251 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Revised: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024]
Abstract
Considerable evidence suggests that people value the freedom to choose. However, it is unclear whether this preference for choice stems purely from choice's intrinsic value, or whether people prefer to choose because it tends to provide instrumental information about desirable outcomes. To address this question, participants completed a novel choice task in which they could freely choose to exert choice or not, manipulating the level of instrumental contingency between participants' choices and eventual outcomes, which we operationalized using the information-theoretic concept of mutual information. Across two experiments (N = 100 each), we demonstrate a marked preference for choice, but importantly found that participants' preference for free choice is weakened when actions are decoupled from outcomes. Taken together, our results demonstrate that a significant factor in people's preference for choice is an assumption about the instrumental value of choice, suggesting against a purely intrinsic value of choice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sean Devine
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
| | | | - Stephen M Fleming
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK
| | - A Ross Otto
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Marini M, Colaiuda E, Gastaldi S, Addessi E, Paglieri F. Available and unavailable decoys in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) decision-making. Anim Cogn 2024; 27:3. [PMID: 38388756 PMCID: PMC10884124 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01860-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2023] [Revised: 01/09/2024] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
Decision-making has been observed to be systematically affected by decoys, i.e., options that should be irrelevant, either because unavailable or because manifestly inferior to other alternatives, and yet shift preferences towards their target. Decoy effects have been extensively studied both in humans and in several other species; however, evidence in non-human primates remains scant and inconclusive. To address this gap, this study investigates how choices in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) are affected by different types of decoys: asymmetrically dominated decoys, i.e., available and unavailable options that are inferior to only one of the other alternatives, and phantom decoys, i.e., unavailable options that are superior to another available alternative. After controlling for the subjective strength of initial preferences and the distance of each decoy from its target in attribute space, results demonstrate a systematic shift in capuchins' preference towards the target of both asymmetrically dominated decoys (whether they are available or not) and phantom decoys, regardless of what options is being targeted by such decoys. This provides the most comprehensive evidence to date of decoy effects in non-human primates, with important theoretical and methodological implications for future comparative studies on context effects in decision-making.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marco Marini
- IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Edoardo Colaiuda
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Serena Gastaldi
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Elsa Addessi
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Fabio Paglieri
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Moran PA, Bosse M, Mariën J, Halfwerk W. Genomic footprints of (pre) colonialism: Population declines in urban and forest túngara frogs coincident with historical human activity. Mol Ecol 2024; 33:e17258. [PMID: 38153193 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/29/2023]
Abstract
Urbanisation is rapidly altering ecosystems, leading to profound biodiversity loss. To mitigate these effects, we need a better understanding of how urbanisation impacts dispersal and reproduction. Two contrasting population demographic models have been proposed that predict that urbanisation either promotes (facilitation model) or constrains (fragmentation model) gene flow and genetic diversity. Which of these models prevails likely depends on the strength of selection on specific phenotypic traits that influence dispersal, survival, or reproduction. Here, we a priori examined the genomic impact of urbanisation on the Neotropical túngara frog (Engystomops pustulosus), a species known to adapt its reproductive traits to urban selective pressures. Using whole-genome resequencing for multiple urban and forest populations we examined genomic diversity, population connectivity and demographic history. Contrary to both the fragmentation and facilitation models, urban populations did not exhibit substantial changes in genomic diversity or differentiation compared with forest populations, and genomic variation was best explained by geographic distance rather than environmental factors. Adopting an a posteriori approach, we additionally found both urban and forest populations to have undergone population declines. The timing of these declines appears to coincide with extensive human activity around the Panama Canal during the last few centuries rather than recent urbanisation. Our study highlights the long-lasting legacy of past anthropogenic disturbances in the genome and the importance of considering the historical context in urban evolution studies as anthropogenic effects may be extensive and impact nonurban areas on both recent and older timescales.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Moran
- A-LIFE, Section Ecology & Evolution, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Mirte Bosse
- A-LIFE, Section Ecology & Evolution, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Janine Mariën
- A-LIFE, Section Ecology & Evolution, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Wouter Halfwerk
- A-LIFE, Section Ecology & Evolution, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Larter LC, Ryan MJ. Female Preferences for More Elaborate Signals Are an Emergent Outcome of Male Chorusing Interactions in Túngara Frogs. Am Nat 2024; 203:92-108. [PMID: 38207138 DOI: 10.1086/727469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
AbstractIn chorusing species, conspecific interference exerts strong selection on signal form and timing to maximize conspicuousness and attractiveness within the signaling milieu. We investigated how túngara frog calling strategies were influenced by varied social environments and male phenotypes and how calling interactions influenced female preferences. When chorusing, túngara frog calls consist of a whine typically followed by one to three chucks. In experimental choruses we saw that as chorus size increased, calls increasingly had their chucks overlapped by the high-amplitude beginning section of other callers' whines. Playback experiments revealed that such overlap reduced the attractiveness of calls to females but that appending additional chucks mitigated this effect. Thus, more elaborate calls were preferred when calls suffered overlap, although they were not preferred when overlap was absent. In response to increasing risk of overlap in larger choruses, males increased call elaboration. However, males overwhelmingly produced two-chuck calls in even the largest choruses, despite our results suggesting that additional chucks would more effectively safeguard calls. Furthermore, aspects of male phenotypes predicted to limit call elaboration had negligible or uncertain effects, suggesting that other constraints are operating. These results highlight how complex interrelations among signal form, signaling interactions, and the social environment shape the evolution of communication in social species.
Collapse
|
7
|
Maldonado M, Fornoni J, Boege K, Pérez Ishiwara R, Santos-Gally R, Domínguez CA. The role of within-plant variation in nectar production: an experimental approach. ANNALS OF BOTANY 2023; 132:95-106. [PMID: 37419457 PMCID: PMC10550272 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcad082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS Nectar, a plant reward for pollinators, can be energetically expensive. Hence, a higher investment in nectar production can lead to reduced allocation to other vital functions and/or increased geitonogamous pollination. One possible strategy employed by plants to reduce these costs is to offer variable amounts of nectar among flowers within a plant, to manipulate pollinator behaviour. Using artificial flowers, we tested this hypothesis by examining how pollinator visitation responds to inter- and intra-plant variation in nectar production, assessing how these responses impact the energetic cost per visit. METHODS We conducted a 2 × 2 factorial experiment using artificial flowers, with two levels of nectar investment (high and low sugar concentration) and two degrees of intra-plant variation in nectar concentration (coefficient of variation 0 and 20 %). The experimental plants were exposed to visits (number and type) from a captive Bombus impatiens colony, and we recorded the total visitation rate, distinguishing geitonogamous from exogamous visits. Additionally, we calculated two estimators of the energetic cost per visit and examined whether flowers with higher nectar concentrations (richer flowers) attracted more bumblebees. KEY RESULTS Plants in the variable nectar production treatment (coefficient of variation 20 %) had a greater proportion of flowers visited by pollinators, with higher rates of total, geitonogamous and exogamous visitation, compared with plants with invariable nectar production. When assuming no nectar reabsorption, variable plants incurred a lower cost per visit compared with invariable plants. Moreover, highly rewarding flowers on variable plants had higher rates of pollination visits compared with flowers with few rewards. CONCLUSIONS Intra-plant variation in nectar concentration can represent a mechanism for pollinator manipulation, enabling plants to decrease the energetic costs of the interaction while still ensuring consistent pollinator visitation. However, our findings did not provide support for the hypothesis that intra-plant variation in nectar concentration acts as a mechanism to avoid geitonogamy. Additionally, our results confirmed the hypothesis that increased visitation to variable plants is dependent on the presence of flowers with nectar concentration above the mean.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michelle Maldonado
- Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoA.P. 70-275, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Juan Fornoni
- Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoA.P. 70-275, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Karina Boege
- Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoA.P. 70-275, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Rubén Pérez Ishiwara
- Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoA.P. 70-275, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Rocío Santos-Gally
- CONAHCYT-Instituto de Ecología, Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoA.P. 70-275, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
| | - César A Domínguez
- Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoA.P. 70-275, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Burridge SD, Schlupp I, Makowicz AM. Male attention allocation depends on social context. Behav Processes 2023; 209:104878. [PMID: 37116668 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Revised: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2023] [Indexed: 04/30/2023]
Abstract
Allocation of attention, typically a limited capacity, is a mechanism used to filter large amounts of information and determine what stimuli are most relevant at a particular moment. In dynamic social environments as found in almost all species, including humans, multiple individuals may play a pivotal role in any given interaction where a male's attention may be divided between a rival, a current mate, and/or future potential mates. Although clearly important, the role of the social environment on attention in animals is not well understood. Here, we investigated impacts of the social environment on attention allocation using male sailfin mollies, Poecilia latipinna, which are a part of a sexual-unisexual mating system with the Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa. We asked: 1) Does the species of female influence the amount of attention a male allocates to her? And 2) Is a male's attention towards his mate influenced by different social partners? We show that males perceive a larger male as a more relevant stimulus to pay attention to compared to a smaller male, and a conspecific female (either a partner or audience) as a more relevant stimulus compared to a heterospecific female. Our results show that differential allocation of attention is dependent upon multiple components of the social environment in which an individual interacts. Understanding what qualities of rival males or potential mates provide enough meaning to males to cause a shift in attention away from a mating opportunity is essential to understanding the influence of the social environment in sexual selection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shelby D Burridge
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA
| | - Ingo Schlupp
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA
| | - Amber M Makowicz
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA; Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University, 319 Stadium Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32306.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Brendl CM, Atasoy Ö, Samson C. Preferential Attraction Effects With Visual Stimuli: The Role of Quantitative Versus Qualitative Visual Attributes. Psychol Sci 2023; 34:265-278. [PMID: 36469790 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221134476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Offering an inferior and rarely chosen third (decoy) option to decision makers choosing between two options has a paradoxical effect: It increases the choice share of the option most similar to the decoy. This attraction effect is robust when options are numeric but rarely occurs in humans when options are visual, even though it occurs in animals. Building on psychophysics, we examined two types of visual attributes: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative visual attributes (e.g., different bottle volumes) can be perceived as magnitudes. Qualitative visual attributes (e.g., different colors), however, do not fall onto a magnitude scale. One can perceive that a bottle's volume is twice that of another bottle but not that a green bottle's color is twice that of a red bottle. We observed robust attraction effects for quantitative visual attributes (4,602 adults, 237 college-age participants), which reversed to repulsion effects when the visual attributes were qualitative (6,005 adults).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Özgün Atasoy
- Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Basel
| | - Coralie Samson
- Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Basel.,Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Marini M, Boschetti C, Gastaldi S, Addessi E, Paglieri F. Context-effect bias in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.): exploring decoy influences in a value-based food choice task. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:503-514. [PMID: 36125642 PMCID: PMC9950244 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01670-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2022] [Revised: 07/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Decision making is known to be liable to several context effects. In particular, adding a seemingly irrelevant alternative (decoy) to a set of options can modify preferences: typically, by increasing choices towards whatever option clearly dominates the decoy (attraction effect), but occasionally also decreasing its appeal and generating a shift in the opposite direction (repulsion effect). Both types of decoy effects violate rational choice theory axioms and suggest dynamic processes of preference-formation, in which the value of each alternative is not determined a priori, but it is instead constructed by comparing options during the decision process. These effects are well documented, both in humans and in other species: e.g., amoebas, ants, honeybees, frogs, birds, cats, dogs. However, evidence of decoy effects in non-human primates remains surprisingly mixed. This study investigates decoy effects in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.), manipulating time pressure across different conditions, to test whether such effects require time-consuming comparative processes among available alternatives. Whereas the time-dependent nature of decoy effects is a robust finding in the human literature, this is its first investigation in non-human animals. Our results show that capuchins exhibit an attraction effect with decoys targeting their preferred food, and that this effect disappears under time pressure; moreover, we observe preliminary evidence of a repulsion effect when decoys target instead the less-preferred food, possibly due to the larger distance between decoy and target in the attribute space. Taken together, these results provide valuable insight on the evolutionary roots of comparative decision making.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marco Marini
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy ,Goal-Oriented Agents Lab, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy
| | - Chiara Boschetti
- Department of Philosophy, Communication, and Performing Arts, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy
| | - Serena Gastaldi
- Unit of Cognitive Primatology, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy
| | - Elsa Addessi
- Unit of Cognitive Primatology, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy
| | - Fabio Paglieri
- Goal-Oriented Agents Lab, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy.
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Peignier M, Bégué L, Gieseke A, Petri D, Ringler M, Ringler E. Mate choice in a promiscuous poison frog. Ethology 2022; 128:693-703. [PMID: 36632092 PMCID: PMC9826338 DOI: 10.1111/eth.13331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Revised: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
In many animal species, members of one sex, most often females, exhibit a strong preference for mating partners with particular traits or resources. However, when females sequentially mate with multiple partners, strategies underlying female choice are not very well understood. Particularly, little is known if under such sequential polyandry females mate truly randomly, or if they actively try to spread mating events across multiple partners. In the present study, we used the highly promiscuous poison frog Allobates femoralis to investigate whether promiscuity could result from a preference for novel mates. Furthermore, we examined the importance of call characteristics for mate choice. We conducted mate choice experiments in a laboratory setup, by presenting females with recent mating partners or novel males. We recorded call characteristics of both males and the time females spent close to each male. In our trials, females preferred previous mating partners over novel males and also males with shorter advertisement calls. Results from previous studies on A. femoralis suggest that females in our trials recognized previous partners based on individual call characteristics. While mating decisions in the wild and in the laboratory might differ, our study provides first evidence for female mate choice in a poison frog with sequential polyandry.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mélissa Peignier
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and EvolutionUniversity of BernBernSwitzerland,Messerli Research InstituteUniversity of Veterinary Medicine ViennaViennaAustria,Department of Behavioral and Cognitive BiologyUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Lauriane Bégué
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and EvolutionUniversity of BernBernSwitzerland,Department of Behavioral and Cognitive BiologyUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria,Department of Biology and EcologyUniversity of MontpellierMontpellierFrance
| | - Alina Gieseke
- Messerli Research InstituteUniversity of Veterinary Medicine ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Diana Petri
- Messerli Research InstituteUniversity of Veterinary Medicine ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Max Ringler
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and EvolutionUniversity of BernBernSwitzerland,Department of Behavioral and Cognitive BiologyUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria,Department of Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria,Institute of Electronic Music and AcousticsUniversity of Music and Performing Arts GrazGrazAustria
| | - Eva Ringler
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and EvolutionUniversity of BernBernSwitzerland,Messerli Research InstituteUniversity of Veterinary Medicine ViennaViennaAustria,Department of Behavioral and Cognitive BiologyUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Guerrera AG, Daniel MJ, Hughes KA. Black and orange coloration predict success during male–male competition in the guppy. Behav Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arac093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Investigating how intrasexual competition and intersexual mate choice act within a system is crucial to understanding the maintenance and diversity of sexually-dimorphic traits. These two processes can act in concert by selecting for the same trait, or in opposition by selecting for different extremes of the same trait; they can also act on different traits, potentially increasing trait complexity. We asked whether male–male competition and female mate choice act on the same male traits using Trinidadian guppies, which exhibit sexual size dimorphism and male-limited color patterns consisting of different colors arranged along the body and fins. We used behavioral assays to assess the relationship between color and competitive success and then compared our results to the plethora of data on female choice and color in our study population. Males initiated more contests if they were larger than their competitor. Males won contests more often if they had more black coloration than their competitor, and the effect of black was stronger when males had less orange than their competitor. Additionally, males won more often if they had either more structural color (iridescence) and more orange, or less structural color and less orange than their competitor, suggesting multiple combinations of color traits predict success. Females from our study population exhibit a strong preference for more orange coloration. Thus, traits favored in male contests differ from those favored by intersexual selection in this population. These results suggest that inter- and intrasexual selection, when acting concurrently, can promote increased complexity of sexually selected traits.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alexa G Guerrera
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University , Tallahassee, FL , USA
| | - M J Daniel
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University , Tallahassee, FL , USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto , Toronto, ON , Canada
| | - K A Hughes
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University , Tallahassee, FL , USA
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Solvi C, Zhou Y, Feng Y, Lu Y, Roper M, Sun L, Reid RJ, Chittka L, Barron AB, Peng F. Bumblebees retrieve only the ordinal ranking of foraging options when comparing memories obtained in distinct settings. eLife 2022; 11:78525. [PMID: 36164830 PMCID: PMC9514845 DOI: 10.7554/elife.78525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Are animals’ preferences determined by absolute memories for options (e.g. reward sizes) or by their remembered ranking (better/worse)? The only studies examining this question suggest humans and starlings utilise memories for both absolute and relative information. We show that bumblebees’ learned preferences are based only on memories of ordinal comparisons. A series of experiments showed that after learning to discriminate pairs of different flowers by sucrose concentration, bumblebees preferred flowers (in novel pairings) with (1) higher ranking over equal absolute reward, (2) higher ranking over higher absolute reward, and (3) identical qualitative ranking but different quantitative ranking equally. Bumblebees used absolute information in order to rank different flowers. However, additional experiments revealed that, even when ranking information was absent (i.e. bees learned one flower at a time), memories for absolute information were lost or could no longer be retrieved after at most 1 hr. Our results illuminate a divergent mechanism for bees (compared to starlings and humans) of learned preferences that may have arisen from different adaptations to their natural environment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cwyn Solvi
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.,Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Yonghe Zhou
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.,Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Yunxiao Feng
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yuyi Lu
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Mark Roper
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Li Sun
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Rebecca J Reid
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Lars Chittka
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew B Barron
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Fei Peng
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.,Department of Psychiatry, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Zhu B, Zhang H, Chen Q, He Q, Zhao X, Sun X, Wang T, Wang J, Cui J. Noise affects mate choice based on visual information via cross-sensory interference. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2022; 308:119680. [PMID: 35787421 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2022] [Revised: 06/12/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Animal communication is often hampered by noise interference. Noise masking has primarily been studied in terms of its unimodal effect on sound information provision and use, while little is known about its cross-modal effect and how animals weigh unimodal and multimodal courtship cues in noisy environments. Here, we examined the cross-modal effects of background noise on female visual perception of mate choice and female preference for multimodal displays (sound + vocal sac) in a species of treefrog. We tested female mate choices using audio/video playbacks in the presence and absence of noise (white noise band-filtered to match or mismatch female sensitive hearing range, heterospecific chorus). Surprisingly, multimodal displays do not improve receiver performance in noise. The heterospecific chorus and white noise band-filtered to match female sensitive hearing ranges, significantly reduced female responses to the attractive visual stimuli in addition to directly impairing auditory information use. Meanwhile, the cross-modal impacts of background noise are influenced to some extent by whether the noise band matches female sensitive hearing range and the difficulty of distinguishing tasks. Our results add to the evidence for cross-modal effects of noise and are the first to demonstrate that background noise can disrupt female responses to visual information related to mate choice, which may reduce the communication efficiency of audiovisual signals in noisy environments and impose fitness consequences. This study has key ecological and evolutionary implications because it illustrates how noise influences mate choice in wildlife via cross-sensory interference, which is crucial in revealing the function and evolution of multimodal signals in noisy environments as well as informing evidence-based conservation strategies for forecasting and mitigating the multimodal impacts of noise interference on wildlife.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bicheng Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China
| | - Haodi Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Qinghua Chen
- South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou, 510655, Guangdong, China
| | - Qiaoling He
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Xiaomeng Zhao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Xiaoqian Sun
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Tongliang Wang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, Hainan, China
| | - Jichao Wang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, Hainan, China
| | - Jianguo Cui
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China.
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Coss DA, Ryan MJ, Page RA, Hunter KL, Taylor RC. Can you hear/see me? Multisensory integration of signals does not always facilitate mate choice. Behav Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arac061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Females of many species choose mates using multiple sensory modalities. Multimodal noise may arise, however, in dense aggregations of animals communicating via multiple sensory modalities. Some evidence suggests multimodal signals may not always improve receiver decision-making performance. When sensory systems process input from multimodal signal sources, multimodal noise may arise and potentially complicate decision-making due to the demands on cognitive integration tasks. We tested female túngara frog, Physalaemus (=Engystomops) pustulosus, responses to male mating signals in noise from multiple sensory modalities (acoustic and visual). Noise treatments were partitioned into three categories: acoustic, visual, and multimodal. We used natural calls from conspecifics and heterospecifics for acoustic noise. Robotic frogs were employed as either visual signal components (synchronous vocal sac inflation with call) or visual noise (asynchronous vocal sac inflation with call). Females expressed a preference for the typically more attractive call in the presence of unimodal noise. However, during multimodal signal and noise treatments (robofrogs employed with background noise), females failed to express a preference for the typically attractive call in the presence of conspecific chorus noise. We found that social context and temporal synchrony of multimodal signaling components are important for multimodal communication. Our results demonstrate that multimodal signals have the potential to increase the complexity of the sensory scene and reduce the efficacy of female decision making.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Derek A Coss
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University , Salisbury, MD 21801 , USA
| | - Michael J Ryan
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712 , USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute , Apartado 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancón , Republic of Panama
| | - Rachel A Page
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute , Apartado 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancón , Republic of Panama
| | - Kimberly L Hunter
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University , Salisbury, MD 21801 , USA
| | - Ryan C Taylor
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University , Salisbury, MD 21801 , USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute , Apartado 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancón , Republic of Panama
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Sex Differences in Mate Choice Preference Characteristics of Aequidens rivulatus. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12091205. [PMID: 35565631 PMCID: PMC9101118 DOI: 10.3390/ani12091205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2022] [Revised: 04/29/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Generally, animals prefer mating with partners of the opposite sex with specific features, which suggests that animals tend to choose mates with particular phenotypic traits. However, there are some differences in mate choice behavior and criteria between males and females. This study analyzed these differences between males and females in Aequidens rivulatus by quantifying body size, behavioral intention, and appearance. The results showed that males paid more attention to preference degree and female attractiveness, whereas females focused on ability and physical strength displays. Consequently, males who chose to mate were primarily associated with body size, behavioral intention, and appearance, whereas the preferences of females were body size, appearance, and behavioral intention. Collectively, our initial findings revealed that males and females have different criteria for mate choice, which is vital in determining successful mating and improving artificial mating. Abstract The mating roles of males and females, to a certain extent, are dynamic and variable. Several factors influence the mate choice process. Nonetheless, the main preference features have not yet been fully understood in Aequidens rivulatus. In this study, because of its natural pairing characteristics, A. rivulatus was selected to explore the mate choice preferences of different sexes. Specifically, male and female behavioral performances were described and quantified through a “no-choice paradigm” during mate choice. A total of 12 behavioral performances were defined in male mate choice (experiment 1), whereas 14 behavioral performances were defined in female mate choice (experiment 2). According to the obtained results, unselected females did not display any proactive behaviors in experiment 1, whereas unselected males exhibited proactive behaviors in experiment 2, including quivering, nipping, tail beating, swimming up and down, and aggression. It was also found that both male and female individuals tend to express dislike rather than like. Those behaviors with higher frequencies (e.g., quivering) often mean less energy expenditure, thus easier repeatability. Moreover, principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to extract and identify mate choice preference features. Preliminary results indicated that male preferences for a mate were mainly associated with body size, behavioral intention, and appearance, whereas the intensity of female preferences was in the order of body size, appearance, and behavioral intention. In addition, sex hormone levels were associated with mate choices.
Collapse
|
17
|
Deng K, Zhou Y, Zhang HD, He QL, Zhu BC, Wang TL, Wang JC, Halfwerk W, Cui JG. Conspecific disturbance odors act as alarm cues to affect female mate choice in a treefrog. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03164-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
|
18
|
Abstract
Abstract
Complex sexual signals spanning multiple sensory modalities may be common in nature, yet few studies have explored how combinations of phenotypic traits influence male attractiveness and mating success. Here, we investigate whether combinations of multiple male phenotypic traits (both within and across sensory modalities) predict male mating and fertilization success in the critically endangered southern corroboree frog, Pseudophryne corroboree. We conducted breeding trials in a standardized captive environment where females were given the opportunity to choose between multiple males over the duration of the breeding season. For each male, we measured multiple call traits, aspects of coloration, body size, and age. We found that complex interactions between multiple traits best predicted male mating and fertilization success. In general, males with lower call frequency, lower call rate, and shorter call duration had the highest mating and fertilization success. Fertilization success was additionally linked to male body size and age. These findings suggest that female P. corroboree select mates based on a suite of acoustic traits, adding to a growing body of evidence that females use multiple traits to assess male quality. Our results also suggest that females may combine information from multiple signals non-additively. Moreover, our results imply that females gain direct fertility benefits from their mate choice decisions. We argue that understanding female mate choice based on various signals across multiple sensory modalities has important implications for the integration of mate choice into conservation breeding programs and needs to be considered when developing behavior-based captive breeding strategies.
Significance statement
Sexual signals are often highly complex, yet we know little about how multiple signal components both within and across various sensory modalities predict male mating success. We investigated whether combinations of multiple phenotypic traits (within and across sensory modalities) predicted male breeding success in threatened corroboree frogs. We conducted captive breeding trials in a homogeneous environment, where females could choose between multiple males over the duration of a single breeding season. We found that interactions between multiple male traits predicted mating and fertilization success. Males with lower call frequency, call rate, and duration had higher mating success. Fertilization success was also linked to acoustic signals, body size, and age. Understanding mate choice for multiple traits further elucidates the complexity of female mate choice. This study is one of the first to consider the conservation implications of multimodal signaling in mate choice.
Collapse
|
19
|
Hemingway CT, Muth F. Label-based expectations affect incentive contrast effects in bumblebees. Biol Lett 2022; 18:20210549. [PMID: 35259941 PMCID: PMC8905167 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
While classic models of animal decision-making assume that individuals assess the absolute value of options, decades of research have shown that rewards are often evaluated relative to recent experience, creating incentive contrast effects. Contrast effects are often assumed to be purely sensory, yet consumer and experimental psychology tell us that label-based expectations can affect value perception in humans and rodents. However, this has rarely been tested in non-model systems. Bumblebees forage on a variety of flowers that vary in their signals and rewards and show contrast when rewards are lowered. We manipulated bees' expectations of stimulus quality, before downshifting the reward to induce incentive contrast. We found that contrast effects were not solely driven by experience with a better reward, but also influenced by experience with associated stimuli. While bees' initial response did not differ between treatments, individuals were faster to accept the lower-quality reward when it was paired with a novel stimulus. We explored the boundaries of these label-based expectations by testing bees along a stimulus gradient and found that expectations generalized to similar stimuli. Such reference-dependent evaluations may play an important role in bees' foraging choices, with the potential to impact floral evolution and plant community dynamics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Felicity Muth
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Rosenthal GG, Ryan MJ. Sexual selection and the ascent of women: Mate choice research since Darwin. Science 2022; 375:eabi6308. [PMID: 35050648 DOI: 10.1126/science.abi6308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Darwin's theory of sexual selection fundamentally changed how we think about sex and evolution. The struggle over mating and fertilization is a powerful driver of diversification within and among species. Contemporaries dismissed Darwin's conjecture of a "taste for the beautiful" as favoring particular mates over others, but there is now overwhelming evidence for a primary role of both male and female mate choice in sexual selection. Darwin's misogyny precluded much analysis of the "taste"; an increasing focus on mate choice mechanisms before, during, and after mating reveals that these often evolve in response to selection pressures that have little to do with sexual selection on chosen traits. Where traits and preferences do coevolve, they can do so whether fitness effects on choosers are positive, neutral, or negative. The spectrum of selection on traits and preferences, and how traits and preferences respond to social effects, determine how sexual selection and mate choice influence broader-scale processes like reproductive isolation and population responses to environmental change.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Gil G Rosenthal
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.,Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca," Calnali, Hidalgo, Mexico
| | - Michael J Ryan
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA.,Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Republic of Panama
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Kelleher SR, Silla AJ, Hertel AG, Dingemanse NJ, Byrne PG. Mate Preference Plasticity in a Critically Endangered Frog: Implications for Conservation Breeding. FRONTIERS IN CONSERVATION SCIENCE 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fcosc.2021.748104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Variation in female mate preferences for male traits remains poorly understood (both among and within females), despite having important evolutionary and conservation implications, particularly for captive breeding. Here, we investigate female mate preferences for male advertisement call frequency, and determine whether preferences vary over repeated trials, in the critically endangered southern corroboree frog, Pseudophryne corroboree. We conducted a series of phonotaxis trials in a six-speaker arena where naïve, captive-bred, virgin females were offered a choice between low, average and high frequency male advertisement calls, with a subset of females tested repeatedly. In the first trial, we found no evidence for a population-level preference for call frequency, but females spent less time in the low call zone than expected by chance. However, our results showed that female mate preferences changed over sequential trials. Females spent significantly more time in the low frequency call zone in the third trial compared to the first trial, and, in the last trial, females exhibited a significant population-level preference for low frequency calls. Subsequently, repeatability estimates of female preferences were low and did not significantly deviate from zero. Our results indicate that female P. corroboree mate preferences can exhibit temporal variation, and suggest that females are more attracted to low call frequencies after repeated exposure. These findings imply that female P. corroboree may become choosier over time, and highlight the potential for mate preferences to exhibit phenotypic plasticity within a single reproductive cycle. Overall, these findings provide the first information on mate preferences in P. corroboree, and emphasize the importance of considering individual variation in mate choice studies. From a conservation perspective, knowledge of individual variation in female mate preferences may be used to conduct behavioral manipulations in captivity that facilitate the breeding of genetically valuable individuals, and improve the success of conservation breeding programs.
Collapse
|
22
|
Hemingway CT, Aversa III JC, Ryan MJ, Page RA. Context-dependent preferences in wild fruit bats. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.06.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
|
23
|
Spektor MS, Bhatia S, Gluth S. The elusiveness of context effects in decision making. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:843-854. [PMID: 34426050 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.07.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Contextual features influence human and non-human decision making, giving rise to preference reversals. Decades of research have documented the species and situations in which these effects are observed. More recently, however, researchers have focused on boundary conditions, that is, settings in which established effects disappear or reverse. This work is scattered across academic disciplines and some results appear to contradict each other. We synthesize recent findings and resolve apparent contradictions by considering them in terms of three core categories of decision context: spatial arrangement, attribute concreteness, and deliberation time. We suggest that these categories could be understood using theories of choice representation, which specify how context shapes the information over which deliberation processes operate.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mikhail S Spektor
- Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Sudeep Bhatia
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut Street, 19104 Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sebastian Gluth
- Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Leslie CE, Walkowski W, Rosencrans RF, Gordon WC, Bazan NG, Ryan MJ, Farris HE. Estrogenic Modulation of Retinal Sensitivity in Reproductive Female Túngara Frogs. Integr Comp Biol 2021; 61:231-239. [PMID: 33901287 PMCID: PMC8300951 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icab032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Although mate searching behavior in female túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus) is nocturnal and largely mediated by acoustic cues, male signaling includes visual cues produced by the vocal sac. To compensate for these low light conditions, visual sensitivity in females is modulated when they are in a reproductive state, as retinal thresholds are decreased. This study tested whether estradiol (E2) plays a role in this modulation. Female túngara frogs were injected with either human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) or a combination of hCG and fadrozole. hCG induces a reproductive state and increases retinal sensitivity, while fadrozole is an aromatase inhibitor that blocks hCG-induced E2 synthesis. In an analysis of scotopic electroretinograms (ERGs), hCG treatment lowered the threshold for eliciting a b-wave response, whereas the addition of fadrozole abolished this effect, matching thresholds in non-reproductive saline-injected controls. This suggests that blocking E2 synthesis blocked the hCG-mediated reproductive modulation of retinal sensitivity. By implicating E2 in control of retinal sensitivity, our data add to growing evidence that the targets of gonadal steroid feedback loops include sensory receptor organs, where stimulus sensitivity may be modulated, rather than more central brain nuclei, where modulation may affect mechanisms involved in motivation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin E Leslie
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Whitney Walkowski
- Neuroscience Center, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, 2020 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.,Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
| | - Robert F Rosencrans
- Neuroscience Center, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, 2020 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
| | - William C Gordon
- Neuroscience Center, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, 2020 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.,Department of Ophthalmology, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
| | - Nicolas G Bazan
- Neuroscience Center, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, 2020 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.,Department of Ophthalmology, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
| | - Michael J Ryan
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Hamilton E Farris
- Neuroscience Center, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, 2020 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.,Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.,Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Abstract
One hundred fifty years ago Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, in which he presented his theory of sexual selection with its emphasis on sexual beauty. However, it was not until 50 y ago that there was a renewed interest in Darwin’s theory in general, and specifically the potency of mate choice. Darwin suggested that in many cases female preferences for elaborately ornamented males derived from a female’s taste for the beautiful, the notion that females were attracted to sexual beauty for its own sake. Initially, female mate choice attracted the interest of behavioral ecologists focusing on the fitness advantages accrued through mate choice. Subsequent studies focused on sensory ecology and signal design, often showing how sensory end organs influenced the types of traits females found attractive. Eventually, investigations of neural circuits, neurogenetics, and neurochemistry uncovered a more complete scaffolding underlying sexual attraction. More recently, research inspired by human studies in psychophysics, behavioral economics, and neuroaesthetics have provided some notion of its higher-order mechanisms. In this paper, I review progress in our understanding of Darwin’s conjecture of “a taste for the beautiful” by considering research from these diverse fields that have conspired to provide unparalleled insight into the chooser’s mate choices.
Collapse
|
26
|
Taylor RC, Wilhite KO, Ludovici RJ, Mitchell KM, Halfwerk W, Page RA, Ryan MJ, Hunter KL. Complex sensory environments alter mate choice outcomes. J Exp Biol 2021; 224:jeb233288. [PMID: 33188061 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.233288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Noise is a common problem in animal communication. We know little, however, about how animals communicate in the presence of noise using multimodal signals. Multimodal signals are hypothesised to be favoured by evolution because they increase the efficacy of detection and discrimination in noisy environments. We tested the hypothesis that female túngara frogs' responses to attractive male advertisement calls are improved in noise when a visual signal component is added to the available choices. We tested this at two levels of decision complexity (two and three choices). In a two-choice test, the presence of noise did not reduce female preferences for attractive calls. The visual component of a calling male, associated with an unattractive call, also did not reduce preference for attractive calls in the absence of noise. In the presence of noise, however, females were more likely to choose an unattractive call coupled with the visual component. In three-choice tests, the presence of noise alone reduced female responses to attractive calls and this was not strongly affected by the presence or absence of visual components. The responses in these experiments fail to support the multimodal signal efficacy hypothesis. Instead, the data suggest that audio-visual perception and cognitive processing, related to mate choice decisions, are dependent on the complexity of the sensory scene.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ryan C Taylor
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21801, USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama
| | - Kyle O Wilhite
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21801, USA
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | | | - Kelsey M Mitchell
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21801, USA
| | - Wouter Halfwerk
- Department of Ecological Science, VU University, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
| | - Rachel A Page
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama
| | - Michael J Ryan
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Kimberly L Hunter
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21801, USA
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Latty T, Trueblood JS. How do insects choose flowers? A review of multi-attribute flower choice and decoy effects in flower-visiting insects. J Anim Ecol 2020; 89:2750-2762. [PMID: 32961583 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Understanding why animals (including humans) choose one thing over another is one of the key questions underlying the fields of behavioural ecology, behavioural economics and psychology. Most traditional studies of food choice in animals focus on simple, single-attribute decision tasks. However, animals in the wild are often faced with multi-attribute choice tasks where options in the choice set vary across multiple dimensions. Multi-attribute decision-making is particularly relevant for flower-visiting insects faced with deciding between flowers that may differ in reward attributes such as sugar concentration, nectar volume and pollen composition as well as non-rewarding attributes such as colour, symmetry and odour. How do flower-visiting insects deal with complex multi-attribute decision tasks? Here we review and synthesise research on the decision strategies used by flower-visiting insects when making multi-attribute decisions. In particular, we review how different types of foraging frameworks (classic optimal foraging theory, nutritional ecology, heuristics) conceptualise multi-attribute choice and we discuss how phenomena such as innate preferences, flower constancy and context dependence influence our understanding of flower choice. We find that multi-attribute decision-making is a complex process that can be influenced by innate preferences, flower constancy, the composition of the choice set and economic reward value. We argue that to understand and predict flower choice in flower-visiting insects, we need to move beyond simplified choice sets towards a view of multi-attribute choice which integrates the role of non-rewarding attributes and which includes flower constancy, innate preferences and context dependence. We further caution that behavioural experiments need to consider the possibility of context dependence in the design and interpretation of preference experiments. We conclude with a discussion of outstanding questions for future research. We also present a conceptual framework that incorporates the multiple dimensions of choice behaviour.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tanya Latty
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | |
Collapse
|
28
|
Abstract
Imagine you are deciding between two goods: A is simple but inexpensive, B is luxurious but more costly. Introducing a less advantageous option (e.g., lower quality than A, same price) should not alter your choice between A and B. However, this principle is often violated; three classic biases known as “decoy effects” have been identified, each describing a stereotyped choice pattern in the presence of irrelevant information. Through behavioral testing in human participants and computer simulations, we show that these decoy effects are special cases of a wider principle, whereby stimulus value information is encoded in a relative, rather than an absolute, format. This work clarifies the origin of three behavioral phenomena that are widely studied in psychology and economics. Human decisions can be biased by irrelevant information. For example, choices between two preferred alternatives can be swayed by a third option that is inferior or unavailable. Previous work has identified three classic biases, known as the attraction, similarity, and compromise effects, which arise during choices between economic alternatives defined by two attributes. However, the reliability, interrelationship, and computational origin of these three biases have been controversial. Here, a large cohort of human participants made incentive-compatible choices among assets that varied in price and quality. Instead of focusing on the three classic effects, we sampled decoy stimuli exhaustively across bidimensional multiattribute space and constructed a full map of decoy influence on choices between two otherwise preferred target items. Our analysis reveals that the decoy influence map is highly structured even beyond the three classic biases. We identify a very simple model that can fully reproduce the decoy influence map and capture its variability in individual participants. This model reveals that the three decoy effects are not distinct phenomena but are all special cases of a more general principle, by which attribute values are repulsed away from the context provided by rival options. The model helps us understand why the biases are typically correlated across participants and allows us to validate a prediction about their interrelationship. This work helps to clarify the origin of three of the most widely studied biases in human decision-making.
Collapse
|
29
|
DuVal EH, Jones BC. I’ll have what she’s having: a comment on Davies et al. Behav Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araa081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Emily H DuVal
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Blake Carlton Jones
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
- Science and Mathematics, Bennington College, Bennington, VT, USA
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Hatz LE, Park S, McCarty KN, McCarthy DM, Davis-Stober CP. Young Adults Make Rational Sexual Decisions. Psychol Sci 2020; 31:944-956. [PMID: 32783528 DOI: 10.1177/0956797620925036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We examined risky sexual choice under the lens of rational decision-making. Participants (N = 257) completed a novel sexual-choice task in which they selected from among hypothetical sexual partners varying in physical attractiveness and in the probability that one would contract a sexually transmitted infection (STI) from a one-time sexual encounter with them. We found that nearly all participants evaluated the sexual-choice alternatives in a coherent fashion consistent with utility-based theories of rational choice. In subsequent analyses, we classified participants' responses according to whether their sexual preferences were based on maximizing attractiveness or minimizing the risk of STIs. Finally, we established an association between sexual choice in our task and reported real-world sexual risk-taking.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laura E Hatz
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri
| | - Sanghyuk Park
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
31
|
Gains v. losses, or context dependence generated by confusion? Anim Cogn 2020; 23:361-366. [PMID: 31965401 PMCID: PMC7018787 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01339-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Revised: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 12/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Tversky and Kahneman introduced the term framing for the finding that people give different answers to the same question depending on the way it is posed. One form of framing involves presenting the same outcome as either a gain or a loss. An experiment on starlings by Marsh and Kacelnik suggests that this form of framing occurs in non-humans. We argue that the experimental result demonstrates framing in the general sense of context dependence but does not provide compelling evidence of framing in terms of gains and losses. A version of scalar utility theory which is extended to include the possibility of memory errors accounts for the data and suggests future lines of research.
Collapse
|
32
|
Locatello L, Bozzetta E, Pinzoni L, Rasotto MB. Female comparative mate choice influences strategic male nesting strategy in the peacock blenny Salaria pavo. Behav Processes 2020; 170:103988. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2019] [Revised: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 10/15/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
|
33
|
Bircher N, Naguib M. How Songbird Females Sample Male Song: Communication Networks and Mate Choice. CODING STRATEGIES IN VERTEBRATE ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-39200-0_11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
|
34
|
Abstract
Choice of social group can affect the likelihood of survivorship and reproduction for social species. By joining larger social groups-shoals-small freshwater fish like the mosquitofish Gambusia affinis can reduce predation risk and forage more efficiently. We tested shoal choice in mosquitofish to determine whether such choices are economically rational, i.e. consistent and optimal. Although many studies of decision-making assume rational choice, irrational decision-making is common and occurs across contexts. We tested rationality of shoaling decisions by testing the constant ratio rule, which states that the relative preference for two options should not change in the presence of a third option. Female mosquitofish upheld this rule when tested for shoal preference based on group size. Our results contrast with other studies showing violations of the constant ratio rule in foraging and mate choice decision-making contexts. These results suggest that decisions that immediately influence survivorship or decision-making along a single dimension may favour rational decision-making.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luke Reding
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin , 1 University Station C0990, Austin, TX 78712 , USA
| | - Molly E Cummings
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin , 1 University Station C0990, Austin, TX 78712 , USA
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Ryan MJ, Akre KL, Baugh AT, Bernal XE, Lea AM, Leslie C, Still MB, Wylie DC, Rand AS. Nineteen Years of Consistently Positive and Strong Female Mate Preferences despite Individual Variation. Am Nat 2019; 194:125-134. [DOI: 10.1086/704103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
|
36
|
|
37
|
Iwanir S, Ruach R, Itskovits E, Pritz CO, Bokman E, Zaslaver A. Irrational behavior in C. elegans arises from asymmetric modulatory effects within single sensory neurons. Nat Commun 2019; 10:3202. [PMID: 31324786 PMCID: PMC6642097 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11163-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2018] [Accepted: 06/20/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
C. elegans worms exhibit a natural chemotaxis towards food cues. This provides a potential platform to study the interactions between stimulus valence and innate behavioral preferences. Here we perform a comprehensive set of choice assays to measure worms' relative preference towards various attractants. Surprisingly, we find that when facing a combination of choices, worms' preferences do not always follow value-based hierarchy. In fact, the innate chemotaxis behavior in worms robustly violates key rationality paradigms of transitivity, independence of irrelevant alternatives and regularity. These violations arise due to asymmetric modulatory effects between the presented options. Functional analysis of the entire chemosensory system at a single-neuron resolution, coupled with analyses of mutants, defective in individual neurons, reveals that these asymmetric effects originate in specific sensory neurons.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shachar Iwanir
- Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Science, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Rotem Ruach
- Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Science, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Eyal Itskovits
- Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Science, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Christian O Pritz
- Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Science, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Eduard Bokman
- Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Science, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Alon Zaslaver
- Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Science, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Schwartz JJ, Serratto Del Monte ME. Spatially-mediated call pattern recognition and the cocktail party problem in treefrog choruses: can call frequency differences help during signal overlap? BIOACOUSTICS 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/09524622.2018.1443836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
|
39
|
Castellano S. A distributed-consensus mechanism of decision making explains economically irrational behaviours. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.04.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
|
40
|
|
41
|
Ryan MJ, Page RA, Hunter KL, Taylor RC. ‘Crazy love’: nonlinearity and irrationality in mate choice. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
|
42
|
Local preference encoded by complex signaling: mechanisms of mate preference in the red-eyed treefrog (Agalychnis callidryas). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2597-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
|
43
|
Gluth S, Spektor MS, Rieskamp J. Value-based attentional capture affects multi-alternative decision making. eLife 2018; 7:e39659. [PMID: 30394874 PMCID: PMC6218187 DOI: 10.7554/elife.39659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2018] [Accepted: 10/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans and other animals often violate economic principles when choosing between multiple alternatives, but the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain elusive. A robust finding is that adding a third option can alter the relative preference for the original alternatives, but studies disagree on whether the third option's value decreases or increases accuracy. To shed light on this controversy, we used and extended the paradigm of one study reporting a positive effect. However, our four experiments with 147 human participants and a reanalysis of the original data revealed that the positive effect is neither replicable nor reproducible. In contrast, our behavioral and eye-tracking results are best explained by assuming that the third option's value captures attention and thereby impedes accuracy. We propose a computational model that accounts for the complex interplay of value, attention, and choice. Our theory explains how choice sets and environments influence the neurocognitive processes of multi-alternative decision making.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Mikhail S Spektor
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of BaselBaselSwitzerland
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of FreiburgFreiburgGermany
| | - Jörg Rieskamp
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of BaselBaselSwitzerland
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
DuVal EH, Vanderbilt CC, M'Gonigle LK. The spatial dynamics of female choice in an exploded lek generate benefits of aggregation for experienced males. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
|
45
|
Ferreira GBS, Scheutz M, Boyd SK. Mate choice strategies in a spatially-explicit model environment. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0202680. [PMID: 30138426 PMCID: PMC6107201 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2018] [Accepted: 08/07/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Decisions about the choice of a mate can greatly impact both individual fitness and selection processes. We developed a novel agent-based model to investigate two common mate choice rules that may be used by female gray treefrogs (Hyla versicolor). In this model environment, female agents using the minimum-threshold strategy found higher quality mates and traveled shorter distances on average, compared with female agents using the best-of-n strategy. Females using the minimum-threshold strategy, however, incur significant lost opportunity costs, depending on the male population quality average. The best-of-n strategy leads to significant female:female competition that limits their ability to find high quality mates. Thus, when the sex ratio is 0.8, best-of-5 and best-of-2 strategies yield mates of nearly identical quality. Although the distance traveled by females in the mating task varied depending on male spatial distribution in the environment, this did not interact with female choice for the best-of-n or minimum-threshold strategies. By incorporating empirical data from the frogs in this temporally- and spatially-explicit model, we thus show the emergence of novel interactions of common decision-making rules with realistic environmental variables.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Matthias Scheutz
- Department of Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA, United States of America
| | - Sunny K. Boyd
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Rosenthal GG. Evaluation and hedonic value in mate choice. Curr Zool 2018; 64:485-492. [PMID: 30108629 PMCID: PMC6084558 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoy054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2018] [Accepted: 06/27/2018] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Mating preferences can show extreme variation within and among individuals even when sensory inputs are conserved. This variation is a result of changes associated with evaluative mechanisms that assign positive, neutral, or negative hedonic value to stimuli—that is, label them as attractive, uninteresting, or unattractive. There is widespread behavioral evidence for differences in genes, environmental cues, or social experience leading to marked changes in the hedonic value of stimuli. Evaluation is accomplished through an array of mechanisms that are readily modifiable through genetic changes or environmental inputs, and that may often result in the rapid acquisition or loss of behavioral preferences. Reversals in preference arising from “flips” in hedonic value may be quite common. Incorporating such discontinuous changes into models of preference evolution may illuminate our understanding of processes like trait diversification, sexual conflict, and sympatric speciation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Gil G Rosenthal
- Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.,Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de la Huastecas "Aguazarca", Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy
| | | |
Collapse
|
47
|
Reding L, Cummings ME. Rational mate choice decisions vary with female age and multidimensional male signals in swordtails. Ethology 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Luke Reding
- Department of Integrative Biology University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas
| | - Molly E. Cummings
- Department of Integrative Biology University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Li M, Sun Y, Chen H. RETRACTED:The Decoy Effect as a Nudge: Boosting Hand Hygiene With a Worse Option. Psychol Sci 2018; 30:139-149. [PMID: 29757701 DOI: 10.1177/0956797618761374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Meng Li
- Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado Denver
| | - Yan Sun
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
| | - Hui Chen
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
|
50
|
Corral-López A, Kotrschal A, Kolm N. Selection for relative brain size affects context-dependent male preferences, but not discrimination, of female body size in guppies. J Exp Biol 2018; 221:jeb.175240. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.175240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2017] [Accepted: 05/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Understanding what drives animal decisions is fundamental in evolutionary biology, and mate choice decisions are arguably some of the most important decisions in any individual's life. As cognitive ability can impact decision-making, elucidating the link between mate choice and cognitive ability is necessary to fully understand mate choice. To experimentally study this link, we used guppies (Poecilia reticulata) artificially selected for divergence in relative brain size and with previously demonstrated differences in cognitive ability. A previous test in our female guppy selection lines demonstrated the impact of brain size and cognitive ability on information processing during female mate choice decisions. Here we evaluated the effect of brain size and cognitive ability on male mate choice decisions. Specifically, we investigated the preferences of large-brained, small-brained, and non-selected guppy males for female body size, a key indicator of female fecundity in this species. For this, male preferences were quantified in dichotomous choice tests when presented to dyads of females with small, medium and large body size differences. All types of males showed preference for larger females but no effect of brain size was found in the ability to discriminate between differently sized females. However, we found that non-selected and large-brained males, but not small-brained males, showed context-dependent preferences for larger females depending on the difference in female size. Our results have two important implications. First, they provide further evidence that male mate choice occurs also in a species in which secondary sexual ornamentation occurs only in males. Second, they show that brain size and cognitive ability have important effects on individual variation in mating preferences and sexually selected traits.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Corral-López
- Department of Zoology/Ethology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18B. SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Alexander Kotrschal
- Department of Zoology/Ethology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18B. SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Niclas Kolm
- Department of Zoology/Ethology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18B. SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden
| |
Collapse
|