Student perceptions of their autonomy at University (2017)
Journal Article
Henri, D. C., Morrell, L. J., & Scott, G. W. (2018). Student perceptions of their autonomy at University. Higher Education, 75(3), 507-516. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0152-y

© 2017, The Author(s). Learner autonomy is a primary learning outcome of Higher Education in many countries. However, empirical evaluation of how student autonomy progresses during undergraduate degrees is limited. We surveyed a total of 636 students... Read More about Student perceptions of their autonomy at University.

Disturbed flow in an aquatic environment may create a sensory refuge for aggregated prey (2017)
Journal Article
Johannesen, A., Dunn, A. M., & Morrell, L. J. (2017). Disturbed flow in an aquatic environment may create a sensory refuge for aggregated prey. PeerJ, 5, Article e3121. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3121

Predators use olfactory cues moved within water and air to locate prey. Because prey aggregations may produce more cue and be easier to detect, predation could limit aggregation size. However, disturbance in the flow may diminish the reliability of o... Read More about Disturbed flow in an aquatic environment may create a sensory refuge for aggregated prey.

Colour preferences of UK garden birds at supplementary seed feeders (2017)
Journal Article
Rothery, L., Scott, G. W., & Morrell, L. J. (2017). Colour preferences of UK garden birds at supplementary seed feeders. PLoS ONE, 12(2), Article e0172422. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172422

Supplementary feeding of garden birds generally has benefits for both bird populations and human wellbeing. Birds have excellent colour vision, and show preferences for food items of particular colours, but research into colour preferences associated... Read More about Colour preferences of UK garden birds at supplementary seed feeders.

Conflict between background matching and social signalling in a colour-changing freshwater fish (2016)
Journal Article
Morrell, L. J., Kelley, J. L., & Rodgers, G. M. (2016). Conflict between background matching and social signalling in a colour-changing freshwater fish. Royal Society Open Science, 3(6), 160040. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160040

The ability to change coloration allows animals to modify their patterning to suit a specific function. Many freshwater fishes, for example, can appear cryptic by altering the dispersion of melanin pigment in the skin to match the visual background.... Read More about Conflict between background matching and social signalling in a colour-changing freshwater fish.

The effect of temporally variable environmental stimuli and group size on emergence behavior (2016)
Journal Article
Hansen, M. J., Morrell, L., & Ward, A. J. (2016). The effect of temporally variable environmental stimuli and group size on emergence behavior. Behavioral ecology, 27(3), 939-945. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arv237

How animals trade-off food availability and predation threats is a strong determinant of animal activity and behavior; however, the majority of work on this topic has been on individual animals, despite the modulating effect the presence of conspecif... Read More about The effect of temporally variable environmental stimuli and group size on emergence behavior.

Turbidity weakens selection for assortment in body size in groups (2015)
Journal Article
Kimbell, H. S., & Morrell, L. J. (2016). Turbidity weakens selection for assortment in body size in groups. Behavioral ecology, 27(2), 545-552. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arv183

Prey animals commonly associate with similar-looking individuals to reduce predation risk, via a reduction in predator targeting accuracy (the confusion effect) and preferential targeting of distinct individuals (the oddity effect). These effects are... Read More about Turbidity weakens selection for assortment in body size in groups.

Handedness in fiddler crab fights (2015)
Journal Article
Perez, D. M., Heatwole, S. J., Morrell, L. J., & Backwell, P. R. Y. (2015). Handedness in fiddler crab fights. Animal behaviour, 110(December), 99-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.09.012

Asymmetric weapons are common in bilateral animals and, in some species, they can occur on either the left- or the right-hand side of the body (lateralization). Fiddler crabs (Uca spp, Decapoda: Ocypodidae) have an enlarged claw that is used in male–... Read More about Handedness in fiddler crab fights.

Ask a clearer question, get a better answer. [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations] (2015)
Journal Article
Henri, D., Morrell, L., & Scott, G. (in press). Ask a clearer question, get a better answer. [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research, 4, Article 901. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7066.1

Many undergraduate students struggle to engage with higher order skills such as evaluation and synthesis in written assignments, either because they do not understand that these are the aim of written assessment or because these critical thinking ski... Read More about Ask a clearer question, get a better answer. [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations].

'Selfish herds' of guppies follow complex movement rules, but not when information is limited (2015)
Journal Article
Kimbell, H. S., & Morrell, L. J. (2015). 'Selfish herds' of guppies follow complex movement rules, but not when information is limited. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1816), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1558

Under the threat of predation, animals can decrease their level of risk by moving towards other individuals to form compact groups. A significant body of theoretical work has proposed multiple movement rules, varying in complexity, which might underl... Read More about 'Selfish herds' of guppies follow complex movement rules, but not when information is limited.

Turbidity influences individual and group level responses to predation in guppies, Poecilia reticulata (2015)
Journal Article
Kimbell, H. S., & Morrell, L. (2015). Turbidity influences individual and group level responses to predation in guppies, Poecilia reticulata. Animal behaviour, 103(May), 179-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.02.027

© 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Increasing turbidity (either sedimentary or organic) from anthropogenic sources has significant negative impacts on aquatic fauna, both directly and indirectly by disrupting behaviour. In part... Read More about Turbidity influences individual and group level responses to predation in guppies, Poecilia reticulata.