Self-regulation of Motivation in the Three-spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.)

Abstract

TINBERGEN¹ has argued that the functions of courtship behaviour in animal species are (a) the orientation of the sexes, (b) the synchronization of mating, (c) the prevention of interbreeding between species and (d) the suppression of non-sexual responses in the partner. More recently, Chance² has proposed that, in addition, certain courtship acts, which he calls “cut-off” behaviour, might function to adjust the motivation of the performer of the display. Such activities, Chance suggests, serve to make behaviour more flexible by temporarily “cutting off” a stimulus “producing cumulative mood effects” or to facilitate a change from one type of motivation to a more appropriate one. The interpretation in terms of self-regulation of motivation seems to apply to dorsal pricking behaviour in the courtship of the male three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.).