National Repository of Grey Literature 2 records found  Search took 0.01 seconds. 
Effect of social learning on avoidance of aposematic prey in avian predators
Bělová, Magdalena ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
Social learning is a topic of many studies. We tested the effect of social learning on the acquisition of avoidance against aposematic prey. We have chosen wild-caught adult and naive hand-reared juvenile great tits (Parus major) as a model predator species, because their individual avoidance learnig of aposematic prey is well-studied. We used red and green paper dummies of bugs with a mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) stuck underneath as an artificial prey. Mealworms were soaked in water or in bitter-tasting solution of quinine. We used two types of conspecific demonstrators - naive birds that showed aversive reactions while tasting an unpalatable prey and experienced birds that were trained not to handle the unpalatable pray at all. We compared effects of both demonstrators on discrimination learning and we tested whether these effects differ in adult and juvenile birds. Observing an experienced demonstrator had an effect on the performance of observers at the beginning of learning process. The observers did not reject the unpalatable prey completely, but the number of trials in which they correctly chose the palatable prey was higher in comparison with birds that observed naive demonstrators and birds from the control group with no demonstrator. Latencies to handle the unpalatable prey in the first...
Effect of early experience on food preferences
Bělová, Magdalena ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Landová, Eva (referee)
Experience influence food preferences, in some species early experience influence food preference more than other factors. This influence was found in different species from different taxons. It's linked to a sensitive period which suggest that it might be food imprinting. In some cases it is difficult to distinguish imprinting from neophobia or associative learning. That is one of the reasons why autors often use the term primacy effect or just early experience. In different experiments different stimuli are imprinted. There are taste stimuli, visual stimuli, olfactoric stimuli and tactile stimuli. All of them can influence the later food preferences. Intensity and persistence differs in various species. Diverse metodics complicates comparison of these phenomena. Social transmission also influences food preferences of youngs in some species, but in the most cases it's more about deactivation of neophobia. Key words: early experience, food preferences, food imprinting, primacy effect, social transmission of food preferences, social learning Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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