Animal Communication Exam 2 – Animal Behavior Study Guide, Key Concepts and Practice
Questions
Describe how signals get started, even before signaler and receiver adaptations are both in
place. - ✔✔One or both parties must first evolve precursors of their eventual signals for
reasons other than communication.
Explain the concept of ritualization, as it relates to signal evolution - ✔✔Ritualization is the
refinement of an inadvertent cue into a signal.
This involves:
-Simplification or reduction of # of components
-Exaggeration of remaining components
-Repetition of display
-Stereotypy during repeated renditions
*Leads to coevolution between sender and receiver*
Describe and give examples of signal precursors or identify evidence for such precursors -
✔✔Signal Precursors
-Compare signal states among related species and make a story
-Map signals/responses onto a phylogeny
-Reconstruct trait evolution and ancestor state using parsimony (simplest scenario)
Examples
,-Male pheasants giving food calls and feeding mates. Variety of pheasants do same ritualized
behavior so assume that pheasants are related
-Song repertoire and song complexity in Emberizine sparrows. Make phylogeny of songs and
construct ancestor state
Differentiate between sender and receiver precursor models of signal evolution - ✔✔SEE
MAIN STUDY GUIDE FOR IMAGES
Explain and give examples of sensory biases and sensory exploitation - ✔✔Sensory Biases:
Natural sensory preferences that receiver organisms are born with
EX- Guppies favor orange males because they look like food
-Food detector
-Predator detector
-Navigation mechanism
Sensory Exploitation: taking advantage of receiver sensory biases for mate attraction
Explain the mathematical concept of information - ✔✔H=log2M
H= "bits of information"
M= # of signals
# of questions to ask= source of entropy
Continue minimizing possible answers in half, over and over again
, Ex: 32 letter alphabet → 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 2^5 = 32
5 bits of information → 5 questions
Identify the different types of information coding from sender receiver signal matrices -
✔✔Perfect Coding: each signal occurs with only one condition
No Coding: all probabilities are equal
Imperfect
Imperfect
Specific: one signal per conditions, but multiple conditions per signal
Unique: one or more signals per condition, no overlap of signals
*See main study guide for sender-receiver matrices*
Explain signal detection theory and give examples of how animals differentiate signals and noise
- ✔✔Signal Detection Theory- a means to measure the ability to differentiate between
information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information
Example-Sick vs Healthy bird
**Determining the critical value for an estimate of whether the male is healthy and what the
response is to mate:
P= (correct reject - false alarm) / [(correct reject - false alarm) + (hit - miss)]
Questions
Describe how signals get started, even before signaler and receiver adaptations are both in
place. - ✔✔One or both parties must first evolve precursors of their eventual signals for
reasons other than communication.
Explain the concept of ritualization, as it relates to signal evolution - ✔✔Ritualization is the
refinement of an inadvertent cue into a signal.
This involves:
-Simplification or reduction of # of components
-Exaggeration of remaining components
-Repetition of display
-Stereotypy during repeated renditions
*Leads to coevolution between sender and receiver*
Describe and give examples of signal precursors or identify evidence for such precursors -
✔✔Signal Precursors
-Compare signal states among related species and make a story
-Map signals/responses onto a phylogeny
-Reconstruct trait evolution and ancestor state using parsimony (simplest scenario)
Examples
,-Male pheasants giving food calls and feeding mates. Variety of pheasants do same ritualized
behavior so assume that pheasants are related
-Song repertoire and song complexity in Emberizine sparrows. Make phylogeny of songs and
construct ancestor state
Differentiate between sender and receiver precursor models of signal evolution - ✔✔SEE
MAIN STUDY GUIDE FOR IMAGES
Explain and give examples of sensory biases and sensory exploitation - ✔✔Sensory Biases:
Natural sensory preferences that receiver organisms are born with
EX- Guppies favor orange males because they look like food
-Food detector
-Predator detector
-Navigation mechanism
Sensory Exploitation: taking advantage of receiver sensory biases for mate attraction
Explain the mathematical concept of information - ✔✔H=log2M
H= "bits of information"
M= # of signals
# of questions to ask= source of entropy
Continue minimizing possible answers in half, over and over again
, Ex: 32 letter alphabet → 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 2^5 = 32
5 bits of information → 5 questions
Identify the different types of information coding from sender receiver signal matrices -
✔✔Perfect Coding: each signal occurs with only one condition
No Coding: all probabilities are equal
Imperfect
Imperfect
Specific: one signal per conditions, but multiple conditions per signal
Unique: one or more signals per condition, no overlap of signals
*See main study guide for sender-receiver matrices*
Explain signal detection theory and give examples of how animals differentiate signals and noise
- ✔✔Signal Detection Theory- a means to measure the ability to differentiate between
information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information
Example-Sick vs Healthy bird
**Determining the critical value for an estimate of whether the male is healthy and what the
response is to mate:
P= (correct reject - false alarm) / [(correct reject - false alarm) + (hit - miss)]
