Teresa Dzieweczynski has article published in Ethology

Teresa Dzieweczynski, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, has published an article in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Ethology. The article, "Repeated recent experiences do not affect behavioral consistency in male Siamese fighting fish," features three student co-authors, Lindsay Forrette (ABH '13), Olivia Hebert (MED '13), and Kalyn Sullivan (PBO '11). This marks the second co-authored publication for Lindsay.

This study is one of the first to examine the effects of recent experiences on consistent individual differences and is an important step in determining how consistent animal personality truly is. Dr. Dzieweczynski and her research team determined that while winning or losing fights affected overall aggression, fighting experience did not influence behavioral consistency, variation among individuals, or the strategy a given male used when presented with a male and female conspecific simultaneously. This study has implications for the study of personality and behavioral syndromes in animals as well as for the examination of the evolution of behavior as it suggests that there is a strong genetic basis for consistent individual differences in aggression, courtship, and decision-making in this species.