Learning about non-predators and safe places: the forgotten elements of risk assessment
Bibliographic record
Abstract
A fundamental prerequisite for prey to avoid being captured is the ability to distinguish dangerous stimuli such as predators and risky habitats from non-dangerous stimuli such as non-predators and safe locations. Most research to date has focused on mechanisms allowing prey to learn to recognize risky stimuli. The paradox of learned predator recognition is that its remarkable efficiency leaves room for potentially costly mistakes if prey inadvertently learn to recognize non-predatory species as dangerous. Here, we pre-exposed embryonic woodfrogs, Rana sylvatica, to the odour of a tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum, without risk reinforcement, and later try to teach the tadpoles to recognize the salamander, a red-bellied newt Cynops pyrrhogaster-a closely related amphibian, or a goldfish, Carassius auratus, as a predator. Tadpoles were then tested for their responses to salamander, newt or fish odour. Pre-exposure to salamander did not affect the ability of tadpoles to learn to recognize goldfish as a predator. However, the embryonic pre-exposure to salamanders inhibited the subsequent learning of salamanders as a potential predator, through a mechanism known as latent inhibition. The embryonic pre-exposure also prevented the learned recognition of novel newts, indicating complete generalization of non-predator recognition. This pattern does not match that of generalization of predator recognition, whereby species learning to recognize a novel predator do respond, but not as strongly, to novel species closely related to the known predator. The current paper discusses the costs of making recognition mistakes within the context of generalization of predators and dangerous habitats versus generalization of non-predators and safe habitats and highlights the asymmetry in which amphibians incorporate information related to safe versus risky cues in their decision-making. Mechanisms such as latent inhibition allow a variety of prey species to collect information about non-threatening stimuli, as early as during their embryonic development, and to use this information later in life to infer the danger level associated with the stimuli.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".