Cognition Mediated Coevolution

Download or read book Cognition-Mediated Coevolution written by Sharoni Shafir and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract. In this paper we emphasize the role of pollinator perception and decision-making processes in mediating floral nectar distribution strategies. Since pollinator choice behavior is guided by how the pollinator perceives and evaluates floral rewards, we hypothesize that plants have evolved strategies that maximize their perceived profitability, through pollinator cognition-mediated co-evolution. We focus on two classes of cognitive phenomena, context dependent evaluations and risk-sensitivity. These phenomena are of interest to psychologists and biologists. Our paper is an attempt to show the value of cross-disciplinary exchange of theories and ideas. A review of the ecology literature suggests that pollinators evaluate variability in nectar volume in proportion to the mean, and thus choice behavior is guided by the coefficient of variation (standard deviation/mean) of the distribution. This functional relationship is predicted by Weber's law, which describes a wide range of psychophysical phenomena. Simulations show that this phenomenon also affects how pollinators perceive skewed nectar distributions. Cognition-mediated co-evolution theory should be a fruitful approach to understanding the evolution of pollinator-plant interactions.