Acoustic signals are used for communication in a variety of social contexts. Signals and receiver responses can vary, and that variation can come from development processes, physiological factors, or cognitive processes such as learning. The process of learning encompasses social learning, sexual imprinting, and vocal learning, among others. The development of acoustic behaviors has not been studied in anurans, one of the model systems for acoustic communications. This study examines the contribution of early experience in the development of the acoustically linked mating behaviors in Physalaemus pustulosus. I reared frogs from tadpole stage through metamorphosis to sexual maturity in four treatments -- conspecific chorus, heterospecific (P. enesefae) chorus, isolation, and noise. I then measured the advertisement calls of males, mate choices of females, and vocal responses of males. The male calls differed slightly with early experience; males who were reared in isolation produced shorter calls that were less attractive to females than species typical calls. In phonotaxis tests, female mate choices showed no effect of early experience. The vocal responses of males to acoustic stimuli showed the largest effect of experience. Males who were reared hearing a chorus of congeners, P. enesefae, increased their overall rate of calling and the production of complex calls when presented with a P. enesefae stimulus. By contrast, in the same test, males from other rearing groups showed either little increase or a decrease in calling activity. These findings support the prediction that female behaviors are less subject to environmental influence than are male behaviors. This research suggests that environment may play a role in the variation of male anuran behaviors and highlights the need for more research on the interaction of genes and environment in the development and variation of anuran mating behaviors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Signal detection theory predicts that costs associated with recognition errors, specifically failing to respond to relevant stimuli (missed detection) and responding to erroneous ones (false alarms), shape receiver permissiveness in animal communication systems. Fitness costs of missed detection and false alarms in response to sexual signals differ between the sexes, and are usually higher for females than males. This asymmetry in costs predicts that males should be more permissive than females in their responses to signals. In my dissertation I investigate the behavioral responses of male and female túngara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, to mating signals and sounds associated with such calls. Specifically I explore the following topics: i) responses of the sexes to call complexity, ii) perception of congeneric mating calls by males and females, iii) responses of males to the conspecific call compared to those of extant heterospecifics, iv) effect of sounds associated with increased predation risk in reproductive decisions, and v) effect of the task performed by each sex on signal permissiveness. My findings indicate that recognition errors are higher for males than females as predicted by the different costs associated with recognition errors for each sex. Males respond to a broader range of calls than females. Despite the differences, evolutionary history has left a footprint on the brain of both sexes. In addition, I found that females behaved more cautiously than males suggesting that the sexes balance the risk of predation and the cost of cautious mating strategies differently. In the mating system of túngara frog, as in many others, sexual signals elicit different tasks in the different sexes, female phonotaxis and male calling. Therefore, the sexual differences in decision making I found could be either sex-specific independent of task, or task-specific independent of sex. Here I show that sexual differences in receiver permissiveness are motivated by differences due to the typical reproductive tasks displayed by the sexes. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-176). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Sexual selection is responsible for a great diversity of elaborate male traits. A general female preference for males that have exaggerated traits drives this process, but the reasons females exhibit this preference are often unclear. Recent advances in understanding signal evolution have emerged from studies of receiver psychology that focus on how receivers perceive and process communication signals. I apply the perspective of receiver psychology to understand female preference for elaborate signals in túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus). Male túngara frogs produce advertisement calls of variable complexity. Females exhibit a strong preference for complex to simple calls, but previous studies have not found consistent patterns of preference between calls of variable complexity. In my doctoral research, I investigate the function of variable complexity in túngara frogs. Specifically, I address the following questions: 1) Are calls of variable complexity especially relevant to females in certain contexts? Do males respond to female behavior by increasing their production of complex calls? 2) Does male to female proximity influence female response to call complexity? 3) Are females constrained by their perceptual biology in discriminating differences in call complexity? 4) Can females remember attractive males over silences between bouts of advertising? Is working memory for attractive males dependent upon signal complexity? And 5) Does signal memorability increase with signal complexity in a linear relationship? These studies provide several new perspectives to an understanding of female preference for elaborate signals. Phonotaxis experiments demonstrate that females use elicitation behaviors to influence male production of complex calls, that proximity influences female response to signal elaboration, that females are constrained by their perceptual biology in discriminating between complex calls, that memory can influence the evolution of signal complexity, and that memorability and signal complexity share a non-linear relationship. / text