Browsing by Subject "Mate selection"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item The cognitive biology of mate choice in túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus)(2010-05) Akre, Karin Lise; Ryan, Michael J. (Michael Joseph), 1953-; Cummings, Molly E.; Domjan, Michael; Fuiman, Lee A.; Mueller, Ulrich G.Sexual selection is responsible for a great diversity of elaborate male traits. A general female preference for males that have exaggerated traits drives this process, but the reasons females exhibit this preference are often unclear. Recent advances in understanding signal evolution have emerged from studies of receiver psychology that focus on how receivers perceive and process communication signals. I apply the perspective of receiver psychology to understand female preference for elaborate signals in túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus). Male túngara frogs produce advertisement calls of variable complexity. Females exhibit a strong preference for complex to simple calls, but previous studies have not found consistent patterns of preference between calls of variable complexity. In my doctoral research, I investigate the function of variable complexity in túngara frogs. Specifically, I address the following questions: 1) Are calls of variable complexity especially relevant to females in certain contexts? Do males respond to female behavior by increasing their production of complex calls? 2) Does male to female proximity influence female response to call complexity? 3) Are females constrained by their perceptual biology in discriminating differences in call complexity? 4) Can females remember attractive males over silences between bouts of advertising? Is working memory for attractive males dependent upon signal complexity? And 5) Does signal memorability increase with signal complexity in a linear relationship? These studies provide several new perspectives to an understanding of female preference for elaborate signals. Phonotaxis experiments demonstrate that females use elicitation behaviors to influence male production of complex calls, that proximity influences female response to signal elaboration, that females are constrained by their perceptual biology in discriminating between complex calls, that memory can influence the evolution of signal complexity, and that memorability and signal complexity share a non-linear relationship.Item The development and execution of mate choice in túngara frogs(2009-05) Baugh, Alexander Taylor; Ryan, Michael J. (Michael Joseph), 1953-Interest in the question of when and how species recognition and mate preferences emerge in animals with strong species-typical predispositions has faded since the time of the classical ethologists. In its place, the role of plasticity has surfaced as a central emphasis in the study of animal behavior. Here, I step back and examine the origin and execution of sexual behavior in a tropical frog for which auditory predispositions are key. These experiments challenge assumptions about behavioral development, auditory perception, and stereotyped behavior. First, I illustrate when and how a sex- and species-typical behavior—conspecific phonotaxis—emerges during development. This study demonstrates that phonotaxis, presumably restricted to mature females, is present in both sexes early in postmetamorphic development—potentially long before such behavior might serve an adaptive function. I place this result in the context of hypotheses regarding the development of learned versus non-learned behaviors, and in light of the potential for perception to be altered by physiological changes occurring concomitantly with ontogeny. Next, I describe a set of dynamic mate choice studies that highlight how decision-making in a relatively simple system is more flexible, and less stereotyped, than was previously assumed. Results here show that frogs temporally update their mate choice decisions in a moment-to-moment fashion as advertisement signals change in real time. By decomposing the decision-making process, I determine the stimulus parameters essential for commitment to an initial phonotactic approach. These studies are followed up by experiments that reveal a high level of individual variation in female choosiness during mate choice. Lastly, I describe a mate choice study that revealed categorical perception in frogs, the first “lower” vertebrate now known to exhibit a perceptual mode previously considered a hallmark of “higher” organisms. Collectively, I make the following arguments: (1) constraints on sensory systems play a larger role in shaping behavior than is generally appreciated, irrespective of the involvement of learning; (2) unstudied sources of variation may contribute significantly to the raw material for sexual selection; and (3) phonotaxis in anurans amphibians is not the simple, stereotyped behavior that has been suggested of it in the past.Item Evolution, computer simulation, and human mate selection(2016-08) Conroy-Beam, Daniel Thomas Theodore; Buss, David M.; Legare, Cristine H.; Cormack, Lawrence K.; Holahan, Charles J.; Loving, Timothy J.Prior research has amassed an impressive catalog of human mate preferences. These include universal preferences for features such as kindness, intelligence, and dependability; sex-differentiated attributes such as youth; and physical features such as bodily symmetry and degree of lumbar curvature. However, psychologists lack understanding of what these many preferences do. This dissertation presents three sets of studies that form the foundation of a broader research program exploring the effects of mate preferences on mating outcomes and implications of these effects for the study of preferences. Chapter 2 presents three studies that use agent-based modeling to determine whether people’s stated mate preferences drive their mate choices at all. These studies suggest that mate preferences do guide mate selection, but their effects are not intuitively obvious because of the complex dynamics inherent to realistic mating markets. Three studies in Chapter 3 compare several algorithms for how our mate selection psychology could translate our many individual preferences into mating decisions. Data from agent-based models and real human couples suggest that human mate preferences are integrated into feelings of attraction according to a Euclidean algorithm that represents preferences and potential mates as points within a multidimensional preference space. This multidimensionality has many potential implications for the study of mate preferences; Chapter 4 explores one such implication: how to accurately quantify sex differences in mate preferences. Altogether this dissertation presents a novel perspective on the role of human mate preferences in mating outcomes and new tools for studying mate preferences and human mate choice.Item Optimism and its effect on romantic relationships(Texas Tech University, 1997-12) Dicke, Amy KristineTwo studies examined the role of an optimistic or pessimistic outlook on life in romantic relationships. Study I proposed that two optimistic partners will have a more satisfying relationship than either an optimist and a pessimist, or two pessimists. In addition, it was hypothesized that the two optimists would predict that they will be together longer and be more successful at conflict resolution than would the other two partner combinations. It was also hypothesized that two pessimists would be the least successful at conflict resolution and that they would predict that they will be together for the least amount of time, as compared to two optimists or to an optimist and a pessimist. Also, an optimist and a pessimist will be more successful at conflict resolution when the optimist is a female and the pessimist is a male. The results generally found that optimist-optimist couples exhibited the highest satisfaction, and solved conflicts using integrating and obliging conflict strategies. The optimist-pessimist couples were less satisfied than the optimist-optimist couples, but more satisfied than the pessimist-pessimist couples. The pessimistpessimist couples were thus the least satisfied. They solved conflicts by using dominating conflict tactics, results offering only partial support for the hypotheses. Optimists, as individuals, perceived that they would be together longer than pessimists. The second study attempted to determine whether optimists and pessimists prefer to be in romantic relationships with people sharing their same optimistic or pessimistic outlook on life, or if they would rather be with an optimist, since that quality is socially desirable. Results suggested that people tended to prefer the optimist, regardless of their own optimism level, lending support for one of the research questions. Pessimists did rate the pessimistic stimulus person more favorably than did optimists. People tended to prefer similar others as friends, lending support to the literature on friendship in social psychology, but optimists were preferred to pessimists in general as romantic partners.Item Sexuality, love, and mate selection: an attitudinal study(Texas Tech University, 1999-08) Lacey, Rachel SaulSexuality is a topic that captures the interest of the American public. Sexuality could be seen as having different dimensions, and for this study the one aspect of sexuality that will be studied focuses on sexual attitudes involving moral issues. Research in this area that focuses on young adults is important. As young adults enter college, they begin to form serious relationships that could lead to marriage. In forming these serious relationships, people make choices regarding sexuality, attraction, and love. Indeed, 90% of the population will choose a mate (Buss & Barnes, 1986). The median age of marriage for men and women is in their twenties (Surra, 1990). Many young adults in their twenties are in college when they begin making serious life decisions in reference to romantic relationships. Sexual attitudes are one characteristic that may affect relationship choices during the college years. Most people choose a life partner that they love and are attracted to, but do their sexual attitudes affect these choices? It is important to point out that there is conflicting evidence as to whether people's behavior and attitudes are congruent. For the current study, the focus is on attitudes and it will be assumed that attitudes and behavior are relatively consistent. The rationale for attitudes and behaviors being similar comes from the research of Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, and Kolata (1994) who conducted a national sex survey in which the results indicated that "Membership in a particular attitudinal group is closely associated with what their sexual practices are" (p.240). Also, a meta-analysis of the correlation between attitude and behavior examining approximately 100 studies over a range of domams found an average correlation of .38 (Kraus, 1995). Although .38 is far from the theoretical maximum of 1.00, it is relatively high when one considers all the factors that contribute to behavior and the size of other correlations in the literature. The present study is approached from the viewpoint that since the majority of young adults act in ways that reflect their sexual attitudes, and these attitudes contribute to serious life decisions regarding mate selection, then such attitudes could logically affect how and whom they choose to love. While much of the research on sexuality has been dedicated to studying sexual behaviors and attitudes surrounding the act of sex (e.g., contraception), relatively less is known about general attitudes related to sexuality (e.g., abortion, pornography). Sexual attitudes that incorporate values and moral attitudes are essential in gaining more of an overall understanding of how attraction and love are linked to sexuality. This study will seek to add valuable information to existing literature concerning sexual attitudes of college students, but will further examine the relationship of sexual attitudes to attraction and love styles.