Browsing by Author "Mendelson, Tamra C."
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Item Male preference for conspecific females depends on male size in the splendid darter, Etheostoma barrenense(Elsevier, 2020-06-20) Mattson, Courtney L.; Roberts, Natalie S.; Mendelson, Tamra C.Mating preferences vary among individuals in response to a number of factors, such as the age and phenotype of the choosing individual. However, studies addressing variation in mating preferences generally focus on female preferences and usually are limited to choice within a species. Variation in preferences likely also exists at the species boundary, affecting an individual’s propensity to mate with heterospecific individuals. In darters (Percidae: Etheostoma), male mating preferences are thought to prevent interbreeding between species, with male preferences for conspecifics sometimes as strong as, or stronger than, females’. In the current study, we tested whether male size and coloration predicts preference for conspecific females in Etheostoma barrenense. Previous studies have shown that males of this species strongly prefer conspecific females relative to females of the sympatric congener, the banded darter, Etheostoma zonale; however, those studies did not consider whether variation in male size or coloration affected preferences. Comparing large and small males of E. barrenense in dichotomous choice assays, we found that larger males exhibited stronger preferences for conspecific females and had proportionally more red coloration than smaller males. The proportion of red coloration did not significantly predict male preferences, suggesting that male size rather than male coloration predicts variation in male mating preferences for conspecific females in E. barrenense. Male size is often considered an indicator of individual quality. Alternatively, size might better reflect age in the focal species, suggesting that experience and learning may shape male preferences for conspecific females.Item Processing Bias: Extending Sensory Drive to Include Efficacy and Efficiency in Information Processing(2019-01-03) Renoult, Julien P.; Mendelson, Tamra C.Communication signals often comprise an array of colors, lines, spots, notes or odors that are arranged in complex patterns, melodies or blends. Receiver perception is assumed to influence preference and thus the evolution of signal design, but evolutionary biologists still struggle to understand how perception, preference, and signal design are mechanistically linked. In parallel, the field of empirical aesthetics aims to understand why people like some designs more than others. The model of processing bias discussed here is rooted in empirical aesthetics, which posits that preferences are influenced by the emotional system as it monitors the dynamics of information processing, and that attractive signals have either effective designs that maximize information transmission, efficient designs that allow information processing at low metabolic cost, or both. We refer to the causal link between preference and the emotionally rewarding experience of effective and efficient information processing as the processing bias, and we apply it to the evolutionary model of sensory drive. A sensory drive model that incorporates processing bias hypothesizes a causal chain of relationships between the environment, perception, pleasure, preference, and ultimately the evolution of signal design, from simple to complex.Item Reinforcement in the banded darter Etheostoma zonale: The effect of sex and sympatry on preferences(Wiley, 2020-02-12) Roberts, Natalie S.; Mendelson, Tamra C.Reinforcement occurs when selection against hybrid offspring strengthens behavioral isolation between parental species and may be an important factor in speciation. Theoretical models and experimental evidence indicate that both female and male preferences can be strengthened upon secondary contact via reinforcement. However, the question remains whether this process is more likely to affect the preferences of one sex or the other. Males of polygynous species are often predicted to exhibit weaker preferences than females, potentially limiting the ability for reinforcement to shape male preferences. Yet, in darters (Percidae: Etheostoma), male preference for conspecific mates appears to arise before female preferences during the early stages of allopatric speciation, and research suggests that male, but not female, preferences become reinforced upon secondary contact. In the current study, we aimed to determine whether the geographically widespread darter species Etheostoma zonale exhibits a signature of reinforcement, by comparing the strength of preference for conspecific mates between populations that are sympatric and allopatric with respect to a close congener, E. barrenense. We examined the strength of preference for conspecifics for males and females separately to determine whether the preferences of one or both sexes have been strengthened by reinforcement. Our results show that both sexes of E. zonale from sympatric populations exhibit stronger conspecific preferences than E. zonale from allopatric populations, but that female preferences appear to be more strongly reinforced than male preferences. Results therefore suggest that reinforcement of female preferences may promote behavioral isolation upon secondary contact, even in a genus that is characterized by pervasive male mate choice.Item Sex and design in our evolutionary cousins: The perception of beauty in nature(Universitat de Valencia, 2022-11-28) Mendelson, Tamra C.; Ryan, Michael J.Taking an evolutionary approach to the question of beauty, we discuss the expression and perception of sexual beauty across the animal kingdom. Animals experience beauty in their brains, and animal brains are tuned to features of the environment most relevant to their survival. Over evolutionary time, sexually reproducing animals have exploited that tuning to maximize their attractiveness to the opposite sex, often leading to extreme courtship traits and behaviors. These are the traits of sexual beauty. Combining modern principles of neuroscience and neuroaesthetics with established principles of evolutionary biology, we aim to understand the biological basis and evolution of beauty in all animals, including ourselves.Item Sexual signaling pattern correlates with habitat pattern in visually ornamented fishes(Nature Research, 2020-05-22) Hulse, Samuel V.; Renoult, Julien P.; Mendelson, Tamra C.Article Open Access Published: 22 May 2020 Sexual signaling pattern correlates with habitat pattern in visually ornamented fishes Samuel V. Hulse, Julien P. Renoult & Tamra C. Mendelson Nature Communications volume 11, Article number: 2561 (2020) Cite this article 1064 Accesses 73 Altmetric Metricsdetails Abstract Sexual signal design is an evolutionary puzzle that has been partially solved by the hypothesis of sensory drive. Framed in signal detection theory, sensory drive posits that the attractiveness of a signal depends on its detectability, measured as contrast with the background. Yet, cognitive scientists have shown that humans prefer images that match the spatial statistics of natural scenes. The explanation is framed in information theory, whereby attractiveness is determined by the efficiency of information processing. Here, we apply this framework to animals, using Fourier analysis to compare the spatial statistics of body patterning in ten species of darters (Etheostoma spp.) with those of their respective habitats. We find a significant correlation between the spatial statistics of darter patterns and those of their habitats for males, but not for females. Our results support a sensory drive hypothesis that recognizes efficient information processing as a driving force in signal evolution.