Testosterone and the trade-off between mating and paternal effort in extrapair-mating superb fairy-wrens

Anne Peters

doi:10.1006/anbe.2002.3037

Plasma testosterone levels of male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) during the breeding cycle and in relation to song and paternal care

Behaviour ◽

10.1163/156853907780756003 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 144 (4) ◽

pp. 393-410 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Marcel Eens ◽

Veerle Darras ◽

Lutgarde Arckens ◽

Elke de Ridder ◽

Rianne Pinxten

Keyword(s):

Paternal Care ◽

Sturnus Vulgaris ◽

Plasma Testosterone ◽

Breeding Cycle ◽

Mating Effort ◽

European Starlings ◽

Trade Off ◽

Mate Attraction ◽

Incubation Behaviour ◽

Paternal Effort

In temperate-zone birds, seasonal testosterone (T) profiles often vary among species with different mating systems. The trade-off hypothesis suggests that T levels in male birds represent a trade-off between additional mating effort, stimulated by high T, and paternal effort, inhibited by high T. To study the role of T in mediating the trade-off between paternal and mating effort in the facultatively polygynous European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ), we monitored seasonal fluctuations in T levels and song activity, which functions mainly in mate attraction, and we investigated natural covariation between plasma T levels and male parental and song behaviour during the parental phase. T concentrations peaked during nest building, remained high during the fertile period, and then decreased gradually during the period of paternal care. This resembles the profile typically found in polygynous species with biparental care. Seasonal variation in song activity paralleled seasonal changes in T. The proportion of time spent incubating was significantly negatively correlated with T levels in individual males. There was a positive, but non-significant, correlation between song activity at an additional nest box and T levels during incubation. We suggest that this negative correlation between T and incubation behaviour may be partly explained by T increases in males responding to the presence of prospecting females with additional nestbox occupation and mate attraction song, rather than that high T levels stimulate mate attraction song. During the feeding period, characterized by a very low availability of unmated females, variation in T levels was low and there was no covariation between T and feeding. T levels during the parental phase reflect, but do not seem to directly regulate, the trade-off between parental and additional mating effort and other factors such as opportunities for additional matings may influence the resolution of this reproductive trade-off.

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A Flow-Preserving Algorithm for the Time-Cost Trade-Off Problem

IIE Transactions ◽

10.1080/05695558208974589 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 109-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Suleyman Tufekci

Keyword(s):

Time Cost ◽

Trade Off

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Dual Goals for Speed and Accuracy on the Same Performance Task

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000063 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 118-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Olive Emil Wetter ◽

Jürgen Wegge ◽

Klaus Jonas ◽

Klaus-Helmut Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Memory Scanning ◽

Performance Task ◽

Performance Tasks ◽

Trade Off ◽

Test Experiment ◽

Trade Offs ◽

New Finding ◽

Sternberg Paradigm ◽

Speed Accuracy ◽

Speed And Accuracy

In most work contexts, several performance goals coexist, and conflicts between them and trade-offs can occur. Our paper is the first to contrast a dual goal for speed and accuracy with a single goal for speed on the same task. The Sternberg paradigm (Experiment 1, n = 57) and the d2 test (Experiment 2, n = 19) were used as performance tasks. Speed measures and errors revealed in both experiments that dual as well as single goals increase performance by enhancing memory scanning. However, the single speed goal triggered a speed-accuracy trade-off, favoring speed over accuracy, whereas this was not the case with the dual goal. In difficult trials, dual goals slowed down scanning processes again so that errors could be prevented. This new finding is particularly relevant for security domains, where both aspects have to be managed simultaneously.

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