STARLINGS (STURNUS-VULGARIS) EXPLOITING PATCHES - RESPONSE TO LONG-TERM CHANGES IN TRAVEL-TIME

被引：33

作者：

CUTHILL, IC

HACCOU, P

KACELNIK, A

机构：

[1] Department of Zoology, Bristol University, Bristol BS8 1UG, Woodland Road

[2] Institute of Theoretical Biology, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, Kaiserstraat 63

[3] Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, Oxford OX1 3PS, South Parks Road

来源：

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY | 1994年 / 5卷 / 01期

基金：

英国自然环境研究理事会;

关键词：

LEARNING; MARGINAL VALUE THEOREM; OPTIMAL FORAGING; STARLING; STURNUS-VULGARIS; TEMPORAL MEMORY; TRAVEL TIME;

D O I：

10.1093/beheco/5.1.81

中图分类号：

B84 [心理学]; C [社会科学总论]; Q98 [人类学];

学科分类号：

03 ; 0303 ; 030303 ; 04 ; 0402 ;

摘要：

In this paper we explore the way foraging animals integrate experience over time. The marginal value theorem shows that to maximize long-term gain rate, foragers should adjust patch exploitation to the average travel time for the habitat, and many experiments do find a positive relationship between average patch exploitation and average interpatch travel time. This relationship implies that animals use experience to determine foraging tactics but, by itself, does not imply that anything but the most recent experience (say, the time taken to find the current patch) has an effect on behavior. We directly tested the influence of events before the most recently experienced travel by examining adjustments in foraging behavior after stepwise changes between two homogeneous environments, each with a single travel distance. Using starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in a closed-economy laboratory simulation of a patchy environment, we found that during periods of active foraging, the average number of prey per patch visit is in close agreement with that predicted for rate maximization. After changes in travel time, birds took approximately six full cycles of travel and patch use before reaching a new asymptotic behavior. The pattern of adjustment did not vary with successive presentations of the environmental change. These results demonstrate that memory for more than one travel episode is involved in the foraging decisions of starlings. We relate our results to apparently conflicting data from previous experiments and to models of memory and information processing.

引用

页码：81 / 90

页数：10

共 33 条

[1]

Aitken M.A., Erson D., Francis B., Hinde J., Statistical Modeling in GLIM, (1989)

[2]

Atkinson A.T., Plots, transformations and regression, An Introduction to Graphical Methods of Diagnostic Regression Analysis, (1987)

[3]

Bush R.R., Mosteller F., A mathematical model for simple learning, Psychol Rev, 68, pp. 313-323, (1951)

[4]

Cassini M.H., Kacelnik A., Segura E.T., The tale of the screaming hairy armadillo, the guinea pig and the marginal value theorem, Anim Behav, 39, pp. 1030-1050, (1990)

[5]

Chamov E.L., Optimal foraging, the marginal value theorem, Theor Popul Biol, 9, pp. 129-136, (1976)

[6]

Collier G.H., Life in a closed economy: The ecology of leamingand motivation, Advances in the Analysis of Behavior, 3, pp. 223-274, (1983)

[7]

Collier G.H., Johnson D.F., Cybulski K.A., McHale C.A., Activity patterns in rats (Ralius norvegicus) as a function of the cost of access to four resources, J Comp Psychol, 104, pp. 53-65, (1990)

[8]

Cuthill I., Kacelnik A., Central place foraging: A reappraisal of the “loading effect, Anim Behav, 40, pp. 1087-1101, (1990)

[9]

Cuthill I.C., Kacelnik A., Krebs J.R., Haccou P., Iwasa Y., Starlings exploiting patches: The effect of recent experience on foraging decisions, Anim Behav, 40, pp. 625-640, (1990)

[10]

Dow S.M., Lea S., Foraging in a changing environment: Simulations in the operant laboratory, Quantitative Analyses of Behavior, Vol. 6. Foraging, pp. 89-113, (1987)

← 1 2 3 4 →