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Cross-cultural perception of attractiveness and its correlates: the role of visual modalities
Fiala, Vojtěch ; Kleisner, Karel (advisor) ; Třebický, Vít (referee)
This work reviews the literature on the topic of intercultural perception of human attractiveness with special focus on recent videostimuli-using research. The first section introduces several basic perspectives on ecological-evolutionary view of attractiveness. The next section deals with intercultural differences in attractiveness perception dicussing possible explanations of these differences. The third chapter focuses on faces of people of cross-culture origin and usage of composite stimuli and artificially manipulated stimuli in inter-cultural research. The fourth chapter examines the usage of videostimuli in attractiveness research. I also add information about intercultural usage of videostimuli as far as these are available. Finally, I discuss a possible source of result ambiguity and highlight the potential use of videostimuli in intercultural research of attractiveness perception. Keywords Attractiveness, intercultural perception, videostimuli, cross-culture origin, composite images, averageness, masculinity, feminity
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Effects of colour, shape, and pattern contrast of prey on discrimination learning in avian predators
Kišelová, Martina ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Kleisner, Karel (referee)
Aposematism is a phenomenon in which noxious animals signal their unprofitability to predators by using conspicuous and contrasting visual signals. These visual signals are composed from several components, with the most important being bright colours and contrasting internal patterns. To compare the difficulty of several discriminative stimuli that consist with components of aposematic warning colouration in live animals, experiments were conducted with naive and adult Great Tits (Parus major). The Great Tits were presented with artificial prey, in the form of paper bugs, with the use of a sequential discrimination task; the bugs used differed in colour, shape or internal contrast. Each of the components were tested separately to ensure that the learned or unlearned discrimination task was dependant on the difficulty of the component. The results showed that the birds learned discrimination task when they could use colour or contrast as a cue but if the cue was shaped, they were not successful. These results support the hypothesis that the obvious discriminatory element was colour. Nevertheless, a surprising result emerged when using the discriminatory element of contrast as it was believed that birds are unable to learn the task if they can discriminate only by one contrast. This study not only...
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Phytophily - its origin and influence onto humans
Hůla, Martin ; Komárek, Stanislav (advisor) ; Kleisner, Karel (referee)
Phytophilia, the love of plants, is a widespread and probably inborn human quality. This work shows evolutionary interpretations of its origin. These suggest that phytophilia has evolved as an adaptation to the choice of the resource-rich habitat and to the effective orientation in space. The work also presents the effects of plants on human psyche and briefly mentions cultural and individual differences.
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Effects of multimodal warning siglals of Tritomegas sexmaculatus on reactions of bird predators
Binderová, Jana ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Kleisner, Karel (referee)
Aposematic animals advertise their defensive mechanisms to potential predators using warning signals. Signalling through more than one sensory pathway is called multimodal warning display. Most experimental studies of aposematism have been focused on the effect of a particular warning signal rather than on importance of multimodal signalling. Focusing on the multimodal signalling of real prey is the best way how to understand its effect in nature. The present study is focused on comparing the effect of multimodal warning display of insect prey with its particular warning signals on two species of bird predators. Multimodal warning signalisation of the burrowing bug, Tritomegas sexmaculatus consists of visual (black and white coloration), chemical (odour, possibly taste) and acoustic (stridulation) signals. We compared reactions of wild-caught great tit (Parus major) and blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) to three types of bugs with different warning displays. The non-manipulated bugs displayed multimodally, the brown painted bugs had their warning coloration manipulated and the dealatized bugs couldn't emit acoustic signals. The wild-caught birds of both species avoided all types of bugs. In an experiment with naive hand reared great tits we compared their reactions to non-manipulated and dealatized bugs. Naive...
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The Evolution and Functional Role of the Colour of Iris in Humans, Its Biological Role, and Cross-Cultural Perception
Kočnar, Tomáš ; Kleisner, Karel (advisor) ; Windhager, Sonja (referee) ; Wacewicz, Slawomir (referee)
The human eye is a conspicuous and unique component of facial appearance. From other mammalian eyes it is set apart mainly by its unusual shape, visible white sclera, and a wide range of iris colours, which is something unique within a single species. Whether alone or in the context of the face as a whole, eye colour is an underexplored area within research into the perception of various personality traits. In this thesis, the author first reviews the physiological factors connected with eye colour and reported correlations between eye colour and different psychological and behavioural conditions. This is followed by an investigation of a possible relationship between eye colour and perceived dominance and attractiveness. The first and second study examines whether and to what extent eye colour is associated with facial morphology responsible for perceived dominance. The results are ambiguous. A cross-cultural comparison in the third study revealed that faces with blue eyes are judged as more attractive only in populations where individuals with darker eyes predominate. It is thus discussed whether this population-specific pattern is the consequence of a negative frequency-dependent selection that may have contributed to the present-day eye colour diversity. In short, the aim of this thesis was to...
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The distribution and role of UV reflectant patterns in Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)
Vlach, Jan ; Šípek, Petr (advisor) ; Kleisner, Karel (referee)
The diploma thesis is focused on the distribution and role of UV reflectant patterns in beetles (Coleoptera) with focus on the family Scarabaeidae. Through a survey of European museum collections, we discovered over 900 species of UV reflectant beetles, of which 850 species were identified as UV reflectant for the first time. The surface structures responsible for UV reflectant patterns in beetles were studied in detail using a scanning electron microscope. We have identified two ways how the UV reflectant patterns occur. The first way: the light rays interact with the internal structure of the cuticular formations or the cuticle itself; the second way: the light rays interact with the surface layer formed by cuticular secretion. Additionally we carried out experiments with live animals, where we investigated the effect of an individual's age on the intensity of UV reflectant patterns and the effect of UV reflectance on reproductive activity. In a pilot study we were able to show that freshly hatched individuals show a higher level of UV reflectance than older individuals.
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Relative importance of visual and acoustic modality in imprinting-like effect
Šípková, Kristýna ; Štěrbová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Kleisner, Karel (referee)
The similarity between a partner and a parent of the opposite sex was found across different characteristics. Most often, similarity was found in visual characteristics (e.g., eye colour, hair colour, facial features). Visual characteristics have been tested in context of mate choice mostly individually, however mate choice is multidimensional with involvement of all modalities The aim of our study was to test visual and acoustic modality and their correlations in ratings of perceived similarity of partners and parents of the opposite sex. The aim of this study was also to test perceived similarity of partners and parents of opposite sex in faces and voices and whether the quality of the respondent's relationship with the parent in childhood has an effect on the similarity.The photography of face and voice record was provided by 66 female partners and mothers and 67 male partners and fathers. Similarity between partners and parents of opposite sex was rated by 494 independent female raters. The results of the study showed that partners are similar with parents of the opposite sex in face and voice in both women and men. The results of tested correlations of similarity in the face and voice between the partner and the parents showed that the partners were evaluated as more similar to the parents in...
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Spatial and temporal variation of UV reflectance in relation to environmental factors in genus Pieris and Colias.
Stella, David ; Kleisner, Karel (advisor) ; Bogusch, Petr (referee) ; Morehouse, Nathan (referee)
A bst r a ct Ultravi olet ( U V) mea ns' bey o n d vi olet' (fr o m t he Lati n - ultra - bey on d), w here by vi oletis t he c ol o ur wit h hig hestfre q ue nciesi n t he'visi ble'lig ht s pectr u m. By'visi ble' we refer t o h u ma n visi o n b utit m ust be ta ke n i nt o acc o u nt t hat h u ma n vis ual perce pti o n is i n c o m paris o n t o ma ny ot her orga nis ms rat her li mite di n ter ms of wavele ngt hsit ca n perceive. isis w hy c o m m u nicati o ni n t he U V s pectr u mis of- te n calle d hi d de n, alt h o ug hit m ostli kely plays a ver yi m p orta nt r olei n t he c o m m u nicati o n of vari o us ki n ds ofi nf or mati o n a m o ng a wi de variet y of orga nis ms. e ai m of t he prese nt t hesis is t o el uci date t he fu ncti o ns a n d relative i m p orta nce of U V pa er ns mai nl y i n L e pi d o ptera fr o m a h olistic ec ol o gical a n d ev ol uti o nar y pers pective. U V re fl ecta nce ca n- n ot be st u die d i n is olati o n: i m p orta nt i nteracti o ns a m o n g several ot her varia bles s uc h as li g ht c o n - dit i o ns, ge neral o ptic pr o perties of nat ural o bjects, t he vis ual s yste m, a n d si g nal pr ocessi n g are t h us disc usse d as well, b ut a n overall e m p hasis o n U V re flecta nce is mai ntai ne d t hr o u g h o ut. M ore over, t his w or k...
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