Assessment of Paradoxical Signal Reliability

成功的沟通和社会评估需要接收者辨别信号何时可靠，何时不可靠。使问题更加复杂的是，信号可靠性在信号员之间和信号员内部的不同时间都有所不同。由于通信系统本质上并不可靠，灵长类动物，特别是人类，会花费大量的时间和资源来评估从他们自己的物种成员那里收到的信息的可靠性。令人惊讶的是，通信系统比人类更简单的动物的硬连线通信系统并没有被证明更可靠，我们也不知道这些物种的接收器如何处理信号的不可靠。这个项目将聚焦于认知能力不那么复杂的物种，以研究基本策略是如何进化来应对不可靠的信号的，不可靠的信号是通信领域最重要的突出科学难题。调查员还将继续举办一系列成功的实践科学教育学研讨会，将探究式教学方法带入中学课堂，并在研究实验室为少数民族大学生和高中生提供直接指导机会。拟议的项目将通过确定(1)接收者是否知道信号何时可靠，何时不可靠，(2)接收者是否有应对可变可靠性的战略，以及(3)信号者是否通过其他方式提供更可靠的信息来弥补接收者的不信任来解决中心问题。雄性电鱼(Brachythopomus Gauderio)是此类研究的理想选择，因为它们的信号波形编码身体长度和雄激素水平几乎完全可靠，或者几乎没有可靠性。在这个系统中，信号的可靠性取决于人口密度和食物供应。这些变量将在实验室中进行控制，以促进可靠和不可靠的信号，并使接收器事先暴露在可靠性不同的信号中。行为伴侣选择和男性-男性竞争实验将决定接收者是否通过(I)监测普遍的社会和食物条件，(Ii)审查最近的信号可靠性，或(Iii)接收者是否忽视信号而评估其他更可靠的特征来评估男性信号的可靠性。该项目还将确定信号员是否通过其他感官策略提供所需的信息，以弥补其可靠性的不足。原始数据和分析数据在出版前都由调查员进行保护，并在接受最终手稿后提供给电子共享。

Successful communication and social assessment require receivers to discern when signals are reliable and when they are not. Compounding the problem is that signal reliability varies between signalers and across time within signalers. Because communication systems are not intrinsically reliable, primates, especially humans, spend a great deal of time and resources assessing the reliability of information received from members of their own species. Surprisingly, hard-wired communication systems of animals with simpler communication systems than humans are proving no more reliable, and we do not know how receivers in these species deal with unreliability of signals. This project will focus on a species with less sophisticated cognition to examine how fundamental strategies have evolved to cope with unreliable signals, the most important outstanding scientific puzzle in the field of communication. The investigator will also continue a successful hands-on science pedagogy workshop series that brings inquiry-based teaching methods into middle school classrooms, as well as offering direct mentorship opportunities for minority college and high school students in the research lab. The proposed project will address the central question by determining (1) whether receivers know when signals are reliable and when they are not, (2) whether receivers have strategies for addressing variable reliability and (3) whether signalers compensate for a receiver's lack of trust by providing more reliable information through other means. Male electric fish (Brachyhypopomus gauderio) are ideal for such investigation because their signal waveforms encode body length and androgen level with near perfect reliability, or virtually no reliability. Signal reliability in this system depends on population density and food availability. These variables will be controlled in the lab to promote reliable and unreliable signals, and to create prior exposure of receivers to signals that vary in reliability. Behavioral mate choice and male-male competition experiments will determine whether receivers assess reliability of a male signal by (i) monitoring prevailing social and food conditions, (ii) reviewing recent signal reliability, or (iii) whether receivers ignore signals and assess other, more reliable traits. The project will also determine whether signalers compensate for their lack of reliability by making the desired information readily available through other sensory strategies. Both raw and analyzed data are secured by the investigator prior to publication and made available for electronic sharing upon acceptance of the resulting manuscripts.