DOI: 10.5061/dryad.k98sf7m6t
title: Spoiled for choice: Number of signalers constrains mate choice based on acoustic signals

description: In many taxa, receivers use signals to detect and discriminate among
 mates. Signal detection and discrimination thus has important fitness
 consequences for individuals. Noise is defined as any factor that prevents
 detection or discrimination of signals. The noise produced by groups of
 signaling animals is a well-known impediment to signal detection and
 discrimination in animals, but how many signals produce the emergent,
 masking effects of noise? This dataset was generated to explore how
 receivers discriminate among signals in noisy, multi-choice environments.
 Subjects were female Australian field crickets, Teleogryllus
 oceanicus. We performed a series of phonotaxis (movement toward
 sound) assays in which we manipulated the number of long chirps in the
 signal. First, we assessed female preferences for the number of long chirp
 pulses and found that receivers preferred more long chirp pulses to fewer.
 Then we gave receivers a choice between a preferred, 7-pulse
 signal and either 1, 3, 5, or 7 presentations of the
 non-preferred, 2-pulse signal ("the multi-choice experiment").
 We observed the probability that subjects left the release point,
 the probability that subjects responded to playback, and the probability
 of choosing the preferred stimulus. We also recorded the subject's
 latency to leave the release point and the latency to respond to playback.
 Because the angular separation between speakers decreased with increasing
 number of playback speakers in the multi-choice experiment, we then
 conducted an experiment ("the angular separation experiment") to
 determine whether observed effects were due to the spatial configuration
 of speakers or due to the emergent noise of multiple playback
 speakers. 
description: This dataset was produced using phonotaxis experiments of adult,
 female Australian field crickets (<em>Teleogryllus
 oceanicus</em>) aged 10-13 days post eclosion. Data were collected
 under red light in an anechoic room at a controlled temperature of 26
 degrees during the scotoperiod. The testing arena was
 a 2.5 m x 2.5 m square constructed from interlocking foam mats. Speakers
 were arranged on the floor on the perimeter of a circle measuring 1 m in
 radius (but not demarcated by a physical barrier within the
 arena). Subjects were given phonotaxis trials in
 randomized order and given at least 10 minutes and up to an hour of
 "downtime" between trials. We tested individuals in blocks that
 corresponded to a single day of behavioral testing, and for each block,
 randomized the trial order and which speaker played the preferred
 signal. Playback of all stimuli for a given trial began
 simultaneously and at haphazard times during the signal's period to
 prevent any systematic relationship between the preferred and
 non-preferred signals' spatial relationship and relative
 timing. Full details are provided in the associated
 manuscript.
description: The dataset consists of three spreadsheets, each of which
 corresponds to one of the experiments described in the accompanying paper
 as the "preliminary experiment," the "multi-choice
 experiment," and the "angular separation experiment." See
 the ReadMe file and the associated paper in <em>Behavioral
 Ecology</em> for complete details.