David Stephens | University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (original) (raw)
Papers by David Stephens
Abstract The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal coope... more Abstract The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooperation. According to the IPD framework, repeated play (repetition) and reciprocity combine to maintain a cooperative equilibrium. However, experimental studies with animals suggest that cooperative behavior in IPDs is unstable, and some have suggested that strong preferences for immediate benefits (that is, temporal discounting) might explain the fragility of cooperative equilibria.
Animals show impulsiveness when they prefer a smaller more immediate option, even though a larger... more Animals show impulsiveness when they prefer a smaller more immediate option, even though a larger more delayed option produces a higher intake rate. This impulsive behavior has implications for several behavioral problems including social cooperation. This paper presents two experiments using captive blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) that consider the effects of payoff accumulation and temporal clumping on impulsiveness and cooperation.
Abstract This investigation presents a simple spatially explicit analysis of the ideal-free distr... more Abstract This investigation presents a simple spatially explicit analysis of the ideal-free distribution. The traditional ideal-free distribution assumes discrete sites with definite boundaries, and predicts how many individuals should occupy each site. In contrast, the present analysis assumes that a forager's gains gradually decline with distance from a site, and asks where in space individuals ought to be.
This chapter reports the discussion of a group mostly of behavioral biologists. We attempt to put... more This chapter reports the discussion of a group mostly of behavioral biologists. We attempt to put research on search in our own discipline into a framework that might help to identify parallels with cognitive search. Essential components of search are a functional goal, uncertainty about goal location, the adaptive varying of position, and often a stopping rule. We consider a diversity of cases where search is in domains other than spatial and we list other important dimensions in which search problems differ. One neglected aspect on ...
Animals frequently raise their heads to check for danger. In a group, individuals generally raise... more Animals frequently raise their heads to check for danger. In a group, individuals generally raise their heads independently. Earlier models suggest that all group members could gain by coordinating their vigilance, i.e., each member raising its head when others are not. We re-examine these suggestions, considering groups of different sizes, in light of empirical findings that:
Insect Learning, 1993
Page 213. 8 Learning and Behavioral Ecology: Incomplete Information and Environmental Predictabil... more Page 213. 8 Learning and Behavioral Ecology: Incomplete Information and Environmental Predictability David W. Stephens The Incomplete Information Problem When a foraging notonectid bug extracts the juices from a prey ...
The Biological bulletin, 1996
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jan 12, 2014
Animals learn some things more easily than others. To explain this so-called prepared learning, i... more Animals learn some things more easily than others. To explain this so-called prepared learning, investigators commonly appeal to the evolutionary history of stimulus-consequence relationships experienced by a population or species. We offer a simple model that formalizes this long-standing hypothesis. The key variable in our model is the statistical reliability of the association between stimulus, action, and consequence. We use experimental evolution to test this hypothesis in populations of Drosophila. We systematically manipulated the reliability of two types of experience (the pairing of the aversive chemical quinine with color or with odor). Following 40 generations of evolution, data from learning assays support our basic prediction: Changes in learning abilities track the reliability of associations during a population's selective history. In populations where, for example, quinine-color pairings were unreliable but quinine-odor pairings were reliable, we find increased s...
Animal Behaviour, 2014
This paper presents an alternative approach to studying signallerereceiver interactions. The conv... more This paper presents an alternative approach to studying signallerereceiver interactions. The conventional approach focuses on signal reliability; instead, we focus on receivers' willingness to tolerate imperfect reliability (receiver tolerance). Both approaches aim to explain what promotes and maintains communication. We define receiver tolerance as following a signal in the face of reduced reliability. We used experimental signalling games with blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata, subjects to demonstrate whether uncertain environments generate receiver tolerance for imperfect reliability. Many models of signalling games ignore environmental certainty or predictability, but this certainty is a key part of understanding receiver tolerance. For example, low environmental certainty should increase tolerance since receivers are more uncertain about which action to take. We also tested whether signallers exploit receiver tolerance by signalling dishonestly. The results show that receivers are more likely to heed signals when environments are uncertain. Moreover, signallers are sensitive to this receiver tolerance and, when signallers and receivers have opposing material interests, low environmental certainty promotes dishonest signalling and high certainty restricts it. Our results highlight the usefulness of an approach emphasizing receiver tolerance and demonstrate the critical importance of environmental certainty for signallerereceiver interactions.
Impulsivity: The behavioral and neurological science of discounting., 2010
Science, 2002
The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooper... more The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooperation. According to the IPD framework, repeated play (repetition) and reciprocity combine to maintain a cooperative equilibrium. However, experimental studies with animals suggest that cooperative behavior in IPDs is unstable, and some have suggested that strong preferences for immediate benefits (that is, temporal discounting) might explain the fragility of cooperative equilibria. We studied the effects of discounting and strategic reciprocity on cooperation in captive blue jays. Our results demonstrate an interaction between discounting and reciprocity. Blue jays show high stable levels of cooperation in treatments with reduced discounting when their opponent reciprocates, but their levels of cooperation decline in all other treatment combinations. This suggests that stable cooperation requires both reduced discounting and reciprocity, and it offers an explanation of earlier failures to find cooperation in controlled payoff games.
Theoretical Population Biology, 1987
This paper presents a simple model of how an animal should best use experience to track a changin... more This paper presents a simple model of how an animal should best use experience to track a changing environment. The model supposes that the environment switches between good and bad states according to a first-order Markov chain. The optimal sampling behavior is characterized in terms of the stability of runs (the probability that the environment will stay in the same state from one time to the next) and the relative costs of two kinds of errors: sampling and overrun errors. This model suggests further experimental and theoretical problems. 0 1987 Academic Press, Inc.
The Quarterly Review of Biology, 1999
The American Naturalist, 1989
The American Naturalist, 1988
Page 1. Vol. 132, No. 5 The American Naturalist November 1988 ON THE EVOLUTION OF HOST SELECTION ... more Page 1. Vol. 132, No. 5 The American Naturalist November 1988 ON THE EVOLUTION OF HOST SELECTION IN SOLITARY PARASITOIDS Eric L. Charnov and David W. Stephens Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt ...
Abstract The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal coope... more Abstract The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooperation. According to the IPD framework, repeated play (repetition) and reciprocity combine to maintain a cooperative equilibrium. However, experimental studies with animals suggest that cooperative behavior in IPDs is unstable, and some have suggested that strong preferences for immediate benefits (that is, temporal discounting) might explain the fragility of cooperative equilibria.
Animals show impulsiveness when they prefer a smaller more immediate option, even though a larger... more Animals show impulsiveness when they prefer a smaller more immediate option, even though a larger more delayed option produces a higher intake rate. This impulsive behavior has implications for several behavioral problems including social cooperation. This paper presents two experiments using captive blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) that consider the effects of payoff accumulation and temporal clumping on impulsiveness and cooperation.
Abstract This investigation presents a simple spatially explicit analysis of the ideal-free distr... more Abstract This investigation presents a simple spatially explicit analysis of the ideal-free distribution. The traditional ideal-free distribution assumes discrete sites with definite boundaries, and predicts how many individuals should occupy each site. In contrast, the present analysis assumes that a forager's gains gradually decline with distance from a site, and asks where in space individuals ought to be.
This chapter reports the discussion of a group mostly of behavioral biologists. We attempt to put... more This chapter reports the discussion of a group mostly of behavioral biologists. We attempt to put research on search in our own discipline into a framework that might help to identify parallels with cognitive search. Essential components of search are a functional goal, uncertainty about goal location, the adaptive varying of position, and often a stopping rule. We consider a diversity of cases where search is in domains other than spatial and we list other important dimensions in which search problems differ. One neglected aspect on ...
Animals frequently raise their heads to check for danger. In a group, individuals generally raise... more Animals frequently raise their heads to check for danger. In a group, individuals generally raise their heads independently. Earlier models suggest that all group members could gain by coordinating their vigilance, i.e., each member raising its head when others are not. We re-examine these suggestions, considering groups of different sizes, in light of empirical findings that:
Insect Learning, 1993
Page 213. 8 Learning and Behavioral Ecology: Incomplete Information and Environmental Predictabil... more Page 213. 8 Learning and Behavioral Ecology: Incomplete Information and Environmental Predictability David W. Stephens The Incomplete Information Problem When a foraging notonectid bug extracts the juices from a prey ...
The Biological bulletin, 1996
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jan 12, 2014
Animals learn some things more easily than others. To explain this so-called prepared learning, i... more Animals learn some things more easily than others. To explain this so-called prepared learning, investigators commonly appeal to the evolutionary history of stimulus-consequence relationships experienced by a population or species. We offer a simple model that formalizes this long-standing hypothesis. The key variable in our model is the statistical reliability of the association between stimulus, action, and consequence. We use experimental evolution to test this hypothesis in populations of Drosophila. We systematically manipulated the reliability of two types of experience (the pairing of the aversive chemical quinine with color or with odor). Following 40 generations of evolution, data from learning assays support our basic prediction: Changes in learning abilities track the reliability of associations during a population's selective history. In populations where, for example, quinine-color pairings were unreliable but quinine-odor pairings were reliable, we find increased s...
Animal Behaviour, 2014
This paper presents an alternative approach to studying signallerereceiver interactions. The conv... more This paper presents an alternative approach to studying signallerereceiver interactions. The conventional approach focuses on signal reliability; instead, we focus on receivers' willingness to tolerate imperfect reliability (receiver tolerance). Both approaches aim to explain what promotes and maintains communication. We define receiver tolerance as following a signal in the face of reduced reliability. We used experimental signalling games with blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata, subjects to demonstrate whether uncertain environments generate receiver tolerance for imperfect reliability. Many models of signalling games ignore environmental certainty or predictability, but this certainty is a key part of understanding receiver tolerance. For example, low environmental certainty should increase tolerance since receivers are more uncertain about which action to take. We also tested whether signallers exploit receiver tolerance by signalling dishonestly. The results show that receivers are more likely to heed signals when environments are uncertain. Moreover, signallers are sensitive to this receiver tolerance and, when signallers and receivers have opposing material interests, low environmental certainty promotes dishonest signalling and high certainty restricts it. Our results highlight the usefulness of an approach emphasizing receiver tolerance and demonstrate the critical importance of environmental certainty for signallerereceiver interactions.
Impulsivity: The behavioral and neurological science of discounting., 2010
Science, 2002
The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooper... more The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooperation. According to the IPD framework, repeated play (repetition) and reciprocity combine to maintain a cooperative equilibrium. However, experimental studies with animals suggest that cooperative behavior in IPDs is unstable, and some have suggested that strong preferences for immediate benefits (that is, temporal discounting) might explain the fragility of cooperative equilibria. We studied the effects of discounting and strategic reciprocity on cooperation in captive blue jays. Our results demonstrate an interaction between discounting and reciprocity. Blue jays show high stable levels of cooperation in treatments with reduced discounting when their opponent reciprocates, but their levels of cooperation decline in all other treatment combinations. This suggests that stable cooperation requires both reduced discounting and reciprocity, and it offers an explanation of earlier failures to find cooperation in controlled payoff games.
Theoretical Population Biology, 1987
This paper presents a simple model of how an animal should best use experience to track a changin... more This paper presents a simple model of how an animal should best use experience to track a changing environment. The model supposes that the environment switches between good and bad states according to a first-order Markov chain. The optimal sampling behavior is characterized in terms of the stability of runs (the probability that the environment will stay in the same state from one time to the next) and the relative costs of two kinds of errors: sampling and overrun errors. This model suggests further experimental and theoretical problems. 0 1987 Academic Press, Inc.
The Quarterly Review of Biology, 1999
The American Naturalist, 1989
The American Naturalist, 1988
Page 1. Vol. 132, No. 5 The American Naturalist November 1988 ON THE EVOLUTION OF HOST SELECTION ... more Page 1. Vol. 132, No. 5 The American Naturalist November 1988 ON THE EVOLUTION OF HOST SELECTION IN SOLITARY PARASITOIDS Eric L. Charnov and David W. Stephens Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt ...