Pollen feeding, resource allocation and the evolution of chemical defence in passion vine butterflies

Background and aims – Plants may use various defence mechanisms to protect their tissues against deer browsing and the allocation of resources to defence may trade-off with plants’ growth. In a context of increasing deer populations in European forests, understanding the resource allocation strategies of trees is critical to better assess their ability to face an increasing browsing pressure. The aim of this study was to determine how deer removal affects the resource allocation to both defensive and growth-related traits in field conditions for three tree species (Abies alba, Picea abies and Fagus sylvatica).Methods – We compared eight pairs of fenced-unfenced plots to contrast plots with and without browsing pressure. The pairs were set up in 2005 and 2014 to compare different fencing duration. We measured leaf and shoot traits related to the defence against herbivores (phenolic content, structural resistance, C:N ratio) and to the investment in plants’ growth and productivity (specific leaf area and nutrient content). Key results – For the three species, the structural resistance of leaves and shoots was negatively correlated with SLA, nutrient content and phenolic content. For Abies alba, exclusion of deer decreased shoot structural resistance in favour of higher nutrient content, SLA and phenolic content. The fencing duration had no effect on the different measured traits. Conclusions – Our results support the assumption of a trade-off between structural defence and growth-related traits at the intraspecific scale for the three studied species. We also confirmed the hypothesis that exposure to deer browsing is involved in the resource allocation of woody species. For Abies alba, fencing led to a change in resource allocation from structural defence to growth-related traits and chemical defence.

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Folk-economic beliefs as moral intuitions

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18000456 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Author(s):

Neil Malhotra

Keyword(s):

Resource Allocation ◽

Moral Intuitions ◽

Economic Beliefs ◽

Evolutionary Explanations

AbstractAlthough Boyer & Petersen's (B&P's) cataloguing of and evolutionary explanations for folk-economic beliefs is important and valuable, the authors fail to connect their theories to existing explanations for why people do not think like economists. For instance, people often have moral intuitions akin to principles of fairness and justice that conflict with utilitarian approaches to resource allocation.

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Mother or Wife?

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000124 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 232-242 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Phia S. Salter ◽

Glenn Adams

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Resource Allocation ◽

Cultural Psychology ◽

The United States ◽

Personal Relationship ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Church Membership ◽

Cultural Dynamics ◽

Psychology Perspective ◽

Cultural Ecological

Inspired by “Mother or Wife” African dilemma tales, the present research utilizes a cultural psychology perspective to explore the dynamic, mutual constitution of personal relationship tendencies and cultural-ecological affordances for neoliberal subjectivity and abstracted independence. We administered a resource allocation task in Ghana and the United States to assess the prioritization of conjugal/nuclear relationships over consanguine/kin relationships along three dimensions of sociocultural variation: nation (American and Ghanaian), residence (urban and rural), and church membership (Pentecostal Charismatic and Traditional Western Mission). Results show that tendencies to prioritize nuclear over kin relationships – especially spouses over parents – were greater among participants in the first compared to the second of each pair. Discussion considers issues for a cultural psychology of cultural dynamics.

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Application of Information Introduced to Dynamic Message Processing and Enjoyment

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000195 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 196-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Byungho Park ◽

Rachel L. Bailey

Keyword(s):

Resource Allocation ◽

Recognition Memory ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Orienting Response ◽

Structural Features ◽

Cognitive Resources ◽

Coding System ◽

Message Complexity ◽

Cognitive Resource ◽

Cognitive Overload

Abstract. In an effort to quantify message complexity in such a way that predictions regarding the moment-to-moment cognitive and emotional processing of viewers would be made, Lang and her colleagues devised the coding system information introduced (or ii). This coding system quantifies the number of structural features that are known to consume cognitive resources and considers it in combination with the number of camera changes (cc) in the video, which supply additional cognitive resources owing to their elicitation of an orienting response. This study further validates ii using psychophysiological responses that index cognitive resource allocation and recognition memory. We also pose two novel hypotheses regarding the confluence of controlled and automatic processing and the effect of cognitive overload on enjoyment of messages. Thirty television advertisements were selected from a pool of 172 (all 20 s in length) based on their ii/cc ratio and ratings for their arousing content. Heart rate change over time showed significant deceleration (indicative of increased cognitive resource allocation) for messages with greater ii/cc ratios. Further, recognition memory worsened as ii/cc increased. It was also found that message complexity increases both automatic and controlled allocations to processing, and that the most complex messages may have created a state of cognitive overload, which was received as enjoyable by the participants in this television context.

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