Lecture 18 Flashcards
Describe the handicap principle?
Zahavi states that honest signaling is supported when the costs of producing the signal are high
Define a cue
A regularity or pattern that is either permanently on or is on/off depending on specific conditions
Given an example of a cue
Mosquitoes fly against CO2 streams to locate mammals to bite.
What is a signal?
A perceivable behavior or feature that has evolved and acquired a specific characteristic of conveying information about the signaler’s environment.
What is an example of a signal?
Alarm calling–Signals presence of predators
Describe the evolution of signals
There must be a link between a specific condition and the production of a cue
If the receiver gains some value from the cue, evolution may favor enhancement of the relevant links
When is cue reception useful?
If the receiver has some knowledge of which conditions elicit which cues.(and can decode cues)
The value of a cue is in its ability to _______ decisions.
guide
- respond to alarm calls
- value of potential mate
If cues begin to provide beneficial info, then what?
then selection should start to favor preferences to form.
What is response refinement?
Receivers will also begin to refine responses to communicated info
When does coevolution between signaler and receiver occur?
If there is a fitness benefit for signaler associated with the corresponding behavior of the receiver
If the sender receives a fitness benefit, then what?
Then the signal will be subsequently refined to improve the quality of information communicated.
What is ritualization?
Improvement of the reliability, distortion resistance, and info content of a cue resulting in the development of a true signal.
What are the characteristics of ritualization?
- A simplification in the number of components
- Amplification of the remaining components
- Increased rate of presentation of the components
- Formalized pattern to presenting the components
Some signals aren’t very different from their source cues while others are completely _________.
dissociated
A __________ _______ signal may be difficult to distinguish from a cue.
marginally ritualized
What would happen if a highly ritualized signal became completely separate from the source cue?
It would be independent of the original factors that triggered the cue
-Emancipated cues are decoupled from the original inducing environment; new info is provided by the signal
What bias supports the evolution of a signal?
Receiver perceptual bias
Biases occur outside what?
Outside the context of communication
What are perceptual biases triggered by?
By an aberrant or unique alteration to a cue
When can altered cues become signals?
If there is a fitness benefit for the receiver
During intention movements, the animals doesn’t have to complete the action. Why wouldn’t they have to complete the action?
Just by making the intention movement may be all that is needed to communicate.
Intention movements may indicate what?
honest communication
Misleading information
Intention movements allow the sender to do what?
create expectations in the receiver
Preparatory phases of ________ ________ are intention movements.
attack displays
What other communicative signals count as intention movements?
Displays that animals use to signal submission are also intention movements.
Define antithesis.
Refers to the fact that display signals that indicate opposite reactions tend to take opposite forms.
What are the components of submission signals?
Low, retreating, and make the individual appear smaller
What are some examples of motivational systems in animals?
Hunger, thirst, aggression and fear
Each system is based on __________, and multiple systems can experience high levels of motivation at the same time.
hierarchy
Define motivational conflict
Sometimes the urge to do something worthy or good or pleasurable is directly opposed by the fact that it involves pain or inconvenience or hard work
Define ambivalence behavior
Reflects an animal’s inability to select one motivational force over the other
Behavior typically reflects what?
components of each motivational state
What is alternation?
display involving intention movement from each motivational conditions
What is blending?
Components from each motivational state are combined to create an intermediate form of behavior that overlaps the two conditions
Why does the male stickleback fish perform a zig zag dance during courtship?
Reflects desire to fight intruder and mate with receptive females.
What are some characteristics of motivational conflict?
Broadside threat displays
Conflict between aggression and retreat
Make individual appear larger
What is displacement behavior?
Behaviors that seem irrelevant to the situation
• Typically of anxiety
Define redirected behavior?
Expressed behavior is consistent with motivational state, but directed at the wrong object.
