In this lecture, we discuss more complex topics in communication, such as: the quantification of information in multi-modal, multi-channel signals, the shaping of signal characteristics by sexual selection, and the role of cost in the maintenance of honest signals (both for intraspecies communication and interspecies communiction). We also discuss how different methods of communication exploitation that are categorized under deceitful or "dishonest" signaling (both in intraspecific and interspecific interactions).
Topic highlights:
- the complex honeybee waggle dance and the encoding of distance and direction into different features of a "waggle run"
- runaway (sexual) selection as a driver of potentially extreme sexual dimorphism
- examples of sexual dimorphism, both in terms of physical characteristics and behaviors, which impose great costs on a signaler
- re-introduction of the handicap principle for intersexual signaling/mate choice
- introduction of the extended phenotype, which can also be ritualized into stereotypical forms used for communication and mate choice (as in bowerbird bowers)
- discussion of intraspecific deceitful/dishonest signaling using the case of fiddler-crab claw "bluffing" as a motivational study
- discussion of how brood parasites, such as the common cockoo, can exploit responses to supernormal stimuli to place their brood into the nests of other species
- examples of signaling of intent that prevent cleaner fish from being eaten by "clients"
Important terms: encoding, code, bit, information theory, honest signal, handicap principle, bower, extended phenotype, dishonest/deceitful signal, supernormal stimulus, brood parasitism, cleaner fish
No comments:
Post a Comment