The relation between eliciting stimulus strength and habituation of the threat display in male Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens
Behaviour, . 42 (1-2):
63--96 (1972)Abstract
Studied the effect of different releasing stimuli on the habituation and recovery of aggressive display in male Siamese fighting fish by exposing males in 4 separate groups to an unhabituated live male, a mirror, and habituated live male, or a model of a male in lateral display. During 3 10-min observation periods in each of 2 sessions records were kept of air gulping, gill cover erection frequency and duration, and fin erection frequency and duration. For all 5 response measures the unhabituated male was the strongest releaser, followed successively by mirror, habituated male, and model. Only the duration measures showed a decrement for all groups. The data provides partial support for 2 theories of habituation. (French summary) (30 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)