The effect of background cuing on prey detection

Selective Attention, Priming, and Foraging Behavior

“…In other words, the birds showed hunting by expectation, appearing to form an association between particular areas and particular reward rates. Other studies have reported similar findings from a variety of settings, including patch selection and responses to leaf damage in insectivorous birds (Heinrich & Collins, 1983;Kono, Reid, & Kamil, 1998;Real, Ianazzi, Kamil, & Heinrich, 1984;Smith & Dawkins, 1971;Smith & Sweatmen, 1974). Pulliam (1991, 1993) conducted a detailed aviary study of the foraging behavior of white-throated sparrows on small cryptic or conspicuous seeds and found clear indications that the birds selected habitat patches based on their expected detection rates, with diet composition changing accordingly.…”

“…If a forager has learned that the most common prey type is available in a specific microhabitat, then the cues associated with that habitat will provide a basis for associative priming. And, once it is hunting in the chosen microhabitat, the forager is likely to encounter the same prey type many times in succession, providing a basis for sequential priming (Kono et al, 1998).…”

“…Most research modeled on natural foraging systems has concentrated on sequential priming produced by runs of single target types (e.g.. Bond & Kamil, 1999;Bond & Riley, 1991;Kono et al, 1998;Langley, 1996;Pietrewicz & Kamil, 1979). In contrast, most studies of associative priming have involved a search for simpler stimuli, especially alphanumeric targets.…”

The Evolution of Color Polymorphism: Crypticity, Searching Images, and Apostatic Selection

“…To produce a polymorphism of cryptically colored stimuli, many studies have used heterogeneous backgrounds with corresponding cryptic and conspicuous food items (e.g., Dawkins 1971a, Getty & Pulliam 1993, Reid & Shettleworth 1992. Interpretation of the results of these experiments can be complicated, however, as the difference in backgrounds provides an independent cue that can bias the predator's search and increase the variance in prey detection , Kono et al 1998, Royama 1970. Finally, the prey items should all be roughly equivalently cryptic on the same substrate (a generalist polymorphism) to maximize analytical sensitivity.…”

Visual predators select for crypticity and polymorphism in virtual prey

“…5 Jays exhibit similarly impressive detection abilities when required to locate moths in projected images in the laboratory, providing a convincing emulation of natural foraging behavior. [23][24][25] To furnish our jays with a functional virtual ecology, we generated synthetic, digital moths-bilaterally symmetrical triangles about 6 mm high-and displayed them to the birds overlaid on a complex, granular background ( Figure 1). 18,19 To avoid potential problems with avian color perception, the displays were constructed using a 64-level grey scale.…”