International Research Fellow Awards: Signal Detection Theory and the Structure of Fiddler Crab Displays

9802812 Pope国际研究员奖励计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到二十四个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持丹尼斯·s·波普博士与约翰·克里斯蒂博士在巴拿马巴尔博亚的史密森尼热带研究所进行为期24个月的博士后研究访问。波普博士将以招潮蟹为模型系统，研究性选择理论和动物交流理论，以理解两性二态夸张特征的进化。利用信号探测理论，她将研究雄性招潮蟹挥舞爪子的行为，这种行为是为了威胁其他雄性，并吸引雌性交配。她的研究将使用视频回放技术来呈现刺激。她将向女性展示男性在不同情况下、不同背景下的展示录像。这个测试将区分女性对可探测性的偏好和女性对更夸张的信号的偏好。克里斯蒂博士研究招潮蟹的性选择和性交流已有20年。史密森尼热带研究所拥有设备齐全的设施，并提供了一个发现这些螃蟹种类最多的地方，这里被认为是螃蟹属的起源。* * *

9802812 Pope The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty- four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Denise S. Pope to work with Dr. John Christy at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Balboa, Panama. Dr. Pope will use fiddler crabs as a model system to study the theories of sexual selection and animal communication to understand the evolution of sexually dimorphic exaggerated traits. Using signal detection theory, she will study the claw waving display of male fiddler crabs, which is done to threaten other males and to attract females for mating. Her studies will use a video playback technique for the presentation of stimuli. She will present females with videos of displays produced by males in different situations, and against different backgrounds. This test will distinguish between female preference for detectability and female preference for a more exaggerated signal. Dr. Christy has studied sexual selection and communication in fiddler crabs for twenty years. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has well-equipped facilities, and provides a location where these crabs are found in the greatest diversity and where the genus is thought to have originated. ***