Josh Coulter Evolution of Sex 4/23/2014 Illusions and Great Bowerbirds Male Great Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus maculatus) construct elaborate bowers to attract females for mating. These bowers are composed of two parallel stick walls and floors that are aligned to run from north to south creating an avenue (TRS). The bowers are approximaly 0.6-1 meters long. Gesso is placed at both ends of the bowers to help lure female to the bower. Gesso is a collection of various items the bowerbird collects that he believes will attract and hold a potential mates attention. These items include, gray to white shells, stones, bones, and may other items (BBI) If a female is intrigued by the bower, they will enter the bowers at the south end and watch the male do an elaborate display at the North end of the bower. This display includes vocalizations, movements and tossing of colored objects in front of the gesso (BBI). If the female is impressed with the display they will mate with the male, although even though males spend a great deal of time creating their bowers many of them never attract a female. In 2012 by Laura A. Kelley and John A. Endler that the male bowerbirds use illusions to promote their mating success. They followed this study up in 2014 due to large amount of controversy with their findings. In their 2012 study, they suggested that male bowerbirds actively maintain size-distance gradients of objects on their bower courts that create forced-perspective illusions for female’s viewing their display from within the bower avenue (IPMSIGB). They argue that the females view males displaying over the court with a predetermined viewing geometry and that it’s essential for forced perspective viewing. They also argue that the males arrange ... ... middle of paper ... ...or the Ebbinghaus illusion. 5) Because display objects are waved toward the female during display, their apparent sixe may change more rapidly during the display than if the court had normal perspective. 6) The female moves her head within the avenue walls during the male display, providing her with motion parallax depth cues that will conflict with the false depth cues of forced perspective. 7) Motion parallax gives females an estimate of the distance to display objects, yielding a size estimate that will conflict with illusory sixe estimates generated by forced-perspective and Ebbinghaus illusions. They then argue that any of the seven effects might hold the female’s attention longer than if they were absent. From these findings they conclude that they have shown that illusions have an affect on mating success in ways unpredictable from signal intensity alone.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
One of the central themes of theatrical form is identity and the catalyst by which identity is formed is the body. In using the body as the site of formation of individual identity, women are “uniquely identified with their anatomy” and specifically the parts of their anatomy that differ from that of men (Callaghan 30). Because women are thus defined by their relation ...
know beauty in any form”(86). We are so conditioned to see female beauty as what men
Langer, Ellen J., Susan Fiske, Shelley E. Taylor, and Benzion Chanowitz. "Stigma, Staring, and Discomfort: A Novel-stimulus Hypothesis." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 12.5 (1976): 451-63. Web.
While Rensink’s work is a great demonstration of how complicated the task of change detection is, and how it relies on many factors such as memory and perception, it does not take into consideration the difference in size and structure between the male and the female brain and how visual information is processed in each.
The couple in the story is a couple that has been together a long time and persevered through life together. When they first see the whooping cranes the husband says “they are rare, not many left” (196). This is the point in the story where the first connection between the couple and the cranes are made. The rarity of the cranes symbolizes the rarity of the couple’s relationship. Although they have started developing anomalies in their health, with the husband he “can’t smoke, can’t drink martinis, no coffee, no candy” (197) ¬—they are still able to laugh with each other and appreciate nature’s beauty. Their relationship is a true oddity; filled with lasting love. However this lasting love for whooping cranes has caused some problems for the species. The whooping cranes are “almost extinct”; this reveals a problem of the couple. The rare love that they have is almost extinct as well. The wife worries about her children because the “kids never write” (197). This reveals the communication gap between the two generations, as well as the different values between the generations. These different values are a factor into the extinction of true love.
In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she
Kenyon, Paul. “Overview of Evolutionary Psychology and Mating Strategies.” Human Behavior and Evolution Society. 2000. University of Plymouth. 4 Apr. 2000 .
The large ground finches have a higher curve while the medium ground finches have a smaller head and a tiny beak. The place in which the finches live is what changes their appearances and also the weather helps decide the appearance of these finches.
If there is any confusion that the young woman in pink is supposed to be a spectacle, one only needs to look at the other figures within the canvas. Male figures appear to be both whispering and watching the young woman; she is on display. One male figure, placed in the middle left almost off the canvas, looks directly out of the canvas to the viewer as a reminder that we too are reveling in the
Scientists have used illusions to study the rules that govern visual perception, which are shaped by both evolution and learning. The question of whether gender influences perception of optical illusions has been the subject of recent research. Some studies suggest that men and women may differ in their susceptibility to certain types of illusions. For example, one study found that men were more likely to be fooled by an illusion that made two lines of equal length appear unequal.
The role of beauty pageants is to “ritually mark the bodies on view, rendering them into icons that verify the status quo. The beauty pageant "traffics in the ideal" in order to "give the shape and definition to the figure of the normative citizen of the democratic order" (181). This ritual marking of the body is done through "structured seeing" (185). The structured seeing created by three parties – – “the viewer, viewed, and the mediator"—is not "participatory" but is rather created through the "pornography of distance" (185). This allows "a kind of cultural didacticism we are an array of scripts, roles and positions can be writ large" (185). The mediator "choreographs the relationship [between the spectator and spectacle] and manipulates its conventions for their own ends" (185). However, the spectacle is always "overwhelmingly conspicuous while the viewer and the intermediaries remain obscure" (186). Essentially, the spectacle is always watched, but no say in how they are perceived. The spectacle is the only thing being watched. It is the only body that is truly present. Therefore, the "choreography between a disembodied spectator and a embodied spectacle enlists cultural norms and exploits embodied differences for commercial and creating a rhetorical opposition between supposedly extraordinary figures and putatively ordinary citizens" (186). This is resoundingly true of Gerty
Countless animals are able to clearly display, as well as sense, cues to fertility. However, humans do not possess this important characteristic for reproduction. Over time, humans have developed concealed ovulation meaning neither the person ovulating, nor their partner, are able to tell when they are fertile and able to conceive a child. However, many scientists argue that human’s ovulation is not entirely concealed, and males are able to pick up on cues to fertility in women. The level of attractiveness men find in the body movements and physical features of women at different stages in the menstrual cycle are an indication that men may be able to subconsciously be aware of cues to fertility in women.
orientation on human mate selection preferences, as indicated by an analysis of personal advertisements. Behaviour, Volume 148 , 307-323. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
Feng, Charles. "Looking Good: The Psychology and Biology of Beauty." The Journal of Young Investigators: JYI.org. Dec. 2002. Web. 25 Nov. 2011. .