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Fighting Walnut Flies: Sequential Assessment

Third and final scenario (no animation)

In the previous scenario, your maximum net gain after 10 trials, which was 50 in the first scenario, was 140 in the second. However, in many cases you could not detect a size difference, and you had to endure costly fights to win the resource.

It would be preferable if there were a way of detecting more subtle differences between yourself and your opponent, a way that was less costly than outright fighting.

In this scenario, when there is no obvious size difference, instead of having to choose "fight" or "withdraw," you have a third choice: "display"

A display is a type of behavior that is much less costly than a fight, but that can reveal small differences between opponents.

Cost of fighting: -45 units (win or lose)
Cost of display: -5 units
Gain if win (walnut): 100 units
Cost of withdrawing: 0 units

There is an animated version of this scenario.

To begin the game: type "g" for go. If there is no obvious size difference, you can type "d" for "display behavior."


To start game over: hit "refresh" or "reload" on your browser tool bar.

Go on to the next page, a description of sequential assessment.

Or, go back to scenario two, or to scenario one.

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