A description is provided of EPAM-III. a theory in the form of a computer progrom for simulating humon verbal leorning, olong with o summary of the empiricol evidence for its volidity. Criticisms leveled ogoinst the theory in o recent paper by Borsolou ond Bower ore shown to derive largely from their misconception that EPAM-III employed a binary. rother than n-ory branching discrimination net. ...

The long-lost bowerbird Amblyornis flavifrons was found in the Foja Mountains of west New Guinea, and its bower and display were discovered. The bower is a stick tower on a rimmed moss platform, adorned with separate piles of fruit of three different colors. The displaying male extends toward the female a blue fruit set against his golden crest. These observations support a derivation of bower ...

Reduced male aggression towards different phenotypes generating negative frequency-dependent intrasexual selection has been suggested as a mechanism to facilitate the invasion and maintenance of novel phenotypes in a population. To date, the best empirical evidence for the phenomenon has been provided by laboratory studies on cichlid fish with different colour polymorphisms. Here we experimenta...

Complex signals present 2 outstanding questions: why do they exist and how are they interpreted? Multiple signals can be beneficial for the increased diversity or redundancy of information they convey; however, it is not clear how receivers use this additional information. I investigated a lekking Malawi cichlid fish that builds polymorphic bowers; some males build their sand spawning craters o...

Figure 1. Fruits propagated by bowerbirds. (A) Solanum ellipticum plant and fruit. Scale in cm. (B) Established bower surrounded by Solanum plants. (C) Mean (±1 s.e.) numbers of Solanum plants in 2010 at: randomly selected sites within the study area (n = 20); new bower sites that were being used for the first time (n = 11); established bower sites that had been used for more than one year (n =...