Decision making and preferences for acoustic signals in choice situations by female crickets

Multiple attributes usually have to be assessed when choosing a mate. Efficient choice of the best mate is complicated if the available cues are not positively correlated, as is often the case during acoustic communication. Because of varying distances of signalers, a female may be confronted with signals of diverse quality at different intensities. Here, we examined how available cues are weighted for a decision by female crickets. Two songs with different temporal patterns and/or sound intensities were presented in a choice paradigm and compared with female responses from a no-choice test. When both patterns were presented at equal intensity, preference functions became wider in choice situations compared with a no-choice paradigm. When the stimuli in two-choice tests were presented at different intensities, this effect was counteracted as preference functions became narrower compared with choice tests using stimuli of equal intensity. The weighting of intensity differences depended on pattern quality and was therefore non-linear. A simple computational model based on pattern and intensity cues reliably predicted female decisions. A comparison of processing schemes suggested that the computations for pattern recognition and directionality are performed in a network with parallel topology. However, the computational flow of information corresponded to serial processing.