Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
Published on: June 3, 2013
Reliability and the adaptive utility of discrimination among alarm callers
Daniel T Blumstein1, Laure Verneyre, Janice C Daniel
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 621 Young Drive South, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA. marmots@ucla.edu
Abstract:
Unlike individually distinctive contact calls, or calls that aid in the recognition of young by their parents, the function or functions of individually distinctive alarm calls is less obvious. We conducted three experiments to study the importance of caller reliability in explaining individual-discriminative abilities in the alarm calls of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris). In our first two experiments, we found that calls from less reliable individuals and calls from individuals calling from a greater simulated distance were more evocative than calls from reliable individuals or nearby callers. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that marmots assess the reliability of callers to help them decide how much time to allocate to independent vigilance. The third experiment demonstrated that the number of callers influenced responsiveness, probably because situations where more than a single caller calls, are those when there is certain to be a predator present. Taken together, the results from all three experiments demonstrate the importance of reliability in explaining individual discrimination abilities in yellow-bellied marmots. Marmots' assessment of reliability acts by influencing the time allocated to individual assessment and thus the time not allocated to other activities.
Related Concept Videos
The Availability Heuristic
Receiver Operating Characteristic Plot
Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies
The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic
Bystander Effect
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination