The signal detection problem of aposematic prey revisited: integrating prior social and personal experience.

ABSTRACT: Ever since Alfred R. Wallace suggested brightly coloured, toxic insects warn predators about their unprofitability, evolutionary biologists have searched for an explanation of how these aposematic prey evolve and are maintained in natural populations. Understanding how predators learn about this widespread prey defence is fundamental to addressing the problem, yet individuals differ in their foraging decisions and the predominant application of associative learning theory largely ignores predators' foraging context. Here we revisit the suggestion made 15 years ago that signal detection theory provides a useful framework to model predator learning by emphasizing the integration of prior information into predation decisions. Using multiple experiments where we modified the availability of so

SUBMITTER: Hamalainen L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7331014 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature