Spring 2003
Tuesdays 12:15 Goldwater 604
Seminar Schedule:<http://math.la.asu.edu/~tom/cognition/math+cogsched.html>
On Tuesday, March 4, at 12:15 PM in GWC 604,
the Mathematics and Cognition Seminar will present
a lecture by Dr. Susan Bertram of the Department of Biology.
The topic will be:
| Males of many species produce conspicuous mating displays
that function in female attraction and male repulsion. Females discriminate between potential mates based on these sexual advertisement signals, and numerous studies have investigated the information content of these signals and their role in mate selection. These experiments usually concentrate on different aspects of the temporal, spectral, and energy characters of the signal. In nature, signaling males are often located in close proximity to each other (in choruses). In these choruses the timing of a male's calls relative to those of his neighbors may represent an additional signal character critical for female attraction. In fact, females in several different acoustic insects and anurans seem to prefer leading males calls. Missing from these experiments are details on whether males vary in their propensity to be leaders or followers. Do some males always lead, rarely calling when there is background noise? Do some males always follow, rarely calling when others are silent? Does the distance of nearby callers influence a male's propensity to call or not call? Our research will attempt to address the question of whether males are heterogeneous in their behavior to be leaders or followers. This work is joint with S. Xochitl Orozco, and Darrell Kemp. |