Does the type of task affect prey discrimination learning in avian predators?

IF 16.4 1区 化学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Lucia Kuklová, Lenka Jůnová, Martina Kišelová, Aneta Kuncová, Alice Exnerová
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Abstract

When learning to discriminate between palatable and unpalatable prey, predators may encounter the prey either simultaneously or in a sequence. The two types of discrimination tasks, which are frequently used in experiments focused on aposematism and mimicry, may considerably differ in difficulty, as they differ in the information available to predators during individual encounters with prey. Surprisingly, there are very few studies directly comparing the performance of predators between sequential and simultaneous discrimination tasks using otherwise identical experimental design, the same predators and prey. We tested the effect of the type of discrimination task on the effectiveness of discrimination learning in adult and juvenile great tits (Parus major). Birds were trained to discriminate between palatable and unpalatable artificial prey items baited with mealworms soaked either in water or quinine. Prey shape, colours and patterns were derived from real shield bug species. We compared the performance of birds tested with two discriminative cues, colour and pattern, using three discrimination tasks: (1) sequential—alternating presentation of one palatable and one unpalatable prey item, (2) two-choice—simultaneous presentation of one palatable and one unpalatable prey item and (3) multiple-choice—simultaneous presentation of multiple palatable and unpalatable prey items. Colour was a more effective discriminative cue than pattern for both adult and juvenile birds. Adults performed better than juveniles regardless of task. The birds performed equally well in the sequential and two-choice tasks, but their performance in the multiple-choice task was worse than in the other two tasks. However, these differences were only present when the birds used the pattern as a discriminative cue. The birds tested with colour, a more salient cue, performed equally well in all three tasks. Type of discrimination task may therefore affect the learning performance of predators, but the effect also depends on the saliency of a particular discriminative cue.

Abstract Image

这种任务类型会影响鸟类捕食者的猎物辨别学习吗?
当学习区分美味和不美味的猎物时,捕食者可能会同时或依次遇到猎物。这两种类型的辨别任务,经常用于以警告和模仿为重点的实验中,可能在难度上有很大的不同,因为它们在个体与猎物相遇时向捕食者提供的信息不同。令人惊讶的是,很少有研究使用相同的实验设计,使用相同的捕食者和猎物,直接比较捕食者在顺序和同时辨别任务中的表现。我们测试了区分任务类型对成年和幼年大山雀区分学习效果的影响。鸟类被训练来区分美味和不美味的人工猎物,诱饵是浸泡在水或奎宁中的粉虫。猎物的形状、颜色和图案都来源于真实的盾蝽物种。我们比较了在颜色和图案两种辨别线索下鸟类的表现,采用三个辨别任务:(1)顺序交替呈现一个美味和一个不美味的猎物,(2)两种选择同时呈现一个美味和一个不美味的猎物,(3)选择同时呈现多个美味和不美味的猎物。对成鸟和幼鸟来说,颜色是比图案更有效的区分线索。不管任务是什么,成年人的表现都比青少年好。这些鸟在顺序选择任务和两项选择任务中的表现一样好,但它们在多项选择任务中的表现不如其他两项任务。然而,这些差异只有在鸟类将这种模式作为判别线索时才会出现。接受颜色测试的鸟儿在所有三项任务中表现都一样好,这是一个更明显的线索。因此,辨别任务的类型可能会影响捕食者的学习表现,但这种影响也取决于特定辨别线索的显著性。
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来源期刊
Accounts of Chemical Research
Accounts of Chemical Research 化学-化学综合
CiteScore
31.40
自引率
1.10%
发文量
312
审稿时长
2 months
期刊介绍: Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance. Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.
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