Acquisition and use of past information pieces : from memorisation mechanisms to adaptive consequences of behaviour
type: Dataset
description: In an uncertain and changing world, being able to shape its phenotype according to the current environmental conditions should provide individuals with a major fitness benefit. This depends on information gathering. In the context of behavioural plasticity, it more specifically implies to combine past and current information pieces. Past information use happens through learning and memory, that enables animals to store information in memory for a subsequent decision making. This thesis aims at strengthen the links between behavioural ecology and cognition. First, we tackled two questions specific to past information use. (i) Which weight is given to an older information piece in front of a more recent one? (ii) If several redundant information pieces are gathered, are they all stored? We showed that (i) the parasitoid wasp Venturia canescens seems, at the time scaled we worked with, to weight equally information pieces coming from older and more recent host patches successively foraged. (ii) Among three possible past information sources, only one is stored for a later use. Second, we tested the hypothesis that learning and memory evolved in response to ecological constraints. We conducted a comparative study with arrhenotokous and thelytokous V. canescens thriving in different habitats. Results obtained through olfactory conditioning partially matched our initial predictions; this support the idea of a link between resource distribution and learning features. From the theoretical point of view, the question of the adaptive significance of the length of memory phases has not been tackled yet. Here is shown a model, as a first attempt to fill this gap
identifier: NNT: 2012LYO10250
issued: 2026-05-05T12:53:51.540070
language: fr
modified: 2026-05-05T12:53:51.540075
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD
keyword: apprentissage
keyword: approvisionnement-optimal
keyword: conditionnement-olfactif
keyword: dynamique-de-la-memoire
keyword: hymenoptera
keyword: hymenopteres
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticsdoctoralthesis
keyword: information
keyword: learning
keyword: memory-dynamics
keyword: olfactory-conditioning
keyword: optimal-foraging
keyword: parasitoides
keyword: parasitoids
keyword: sdvsalife-sciences-q-bioagricultural-sciences
keyword: theses
keyword: venturia-canescens
landing page: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00984371

Acquisition and use of past information pieces : from memorisation mechanisms to adaptive consequences of behaviour
type: Distribution
format: HTML
issued: 2026-05-05T12:53:51.545042
modified: 2026-05-05T12:53:51.520350
access URL: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00984371

test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent