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Can Threespine Sticklebacks Learn when to Display?
Author(s) -
Losey George S.,
Sevenster Piet
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1991.tb01187.x
Subject(s) - agonistic behaviour , punishment (psychology) , fish <actinopterygii> , action (physics) , psychology , social psychology , computer security , biology , zoology , computer science , aggression , fishery , physics , quantum mechanics
Developmental studies have indicated that experience is frequently required to produce coordinated agonistic behavior. Learning when to show a threat display could be the proximate mechanism. This paper examines the effects of punishing threat displays with an electric shock. We predicted that shocked fish should decrease their use of threat, but the prediction was not borne out. If anything, the incidence of threat may have increased with punishment, apparently due to an inherent motivational conflict. Constraints against learning not to show threat displays could have been favored by: 1) selection for truthful communication, 2) complexity of aggressive contests, and 3) parallel use of the threat action pattern as a manœvre to deflect bites and minimize damage during painful attacks.