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Experiments on blue jays suggest they form a search image for certain prey.. Visual predators may form what is termed a search image of certain prey.. Predators need not locate their host directly: Kestrels, for instance, are able to detect the faeces and urine of their prey (which reflect ultraviolet), allowing them to identify areas where there are large numbers of voles, for example.
The neural basis of prey detection, recognition, and orientation was studied in depth by Jörg-Peter Ewert in a series of experiments that made the toad visual system a model system in neuroethology (neural basis of natural behavior). He began by observing the natural prey catching behavior of the common European toad (Bufo bufo).
Anti-predator adaptation in action: the kitefin shark (a–c) and the Atlantic wreckfish (d–f) attempt to prey on hagfishes. First, the predators approach their potential prey. Predators bite or try to swallow the hagfishes, but the hagfishes have already projected jets of slime (arrows) into the predators' mouths.
This allows the predator to avoid detection until the prey are close enough for the predator to strike, effectively a form of camouflage. The zone-tailed hawk (Buteo albonotatus), which resembles the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), may provide one such example. It flies amongst them, suddenly breaking from the formation and ambushing its prey ...
Tinbergen suggested that this prey selection was caused by an attentional bias that improved detection of one type of insect while suppressing detection of others. This "attentional priming" is commonly said to result from a pretrial activation of a mental representation of the attended object, which Tinbergen called a "searching image".
The psychology scholar Robert Mitchell identifies four levels of deception in animals. At the first level, as with protective mimicry like false eyespots and camouflage, the action or display is inbuilt. At the second level, an animal performs a programmed act of behaviour, as when a prey animal feigns death to avoid being eaten.
Psychological Methods is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Psychological Association. It was established in 1996 and covers "the development and dissemination of methods for collecting, analyzing, understanding, and interpreting psychological data". [1] The editor-in-chief is Lisa Harlow (University of Rhode Island).
Agent detection is the inclination for animals, including humans, to presume the purposeful intervention of a sentient or intelligent agent in situations that may or may not involve one. Evolutionary origins