Sex differences in laterality are associated with reproduction in threespine stickleback (2021)
Journal Article
McLean, S., & Morrell, L. J. (2021). Sex differences in laterality are associated with reproduction in threespine stickleback. The American naturalist, 197(6), 708-718. https://doi.org/10.1086/714138

Laterality, the partitioning of information processing into specific brain hemispheres, is widespread across animal taxa. Substantial unexplained variation in this trait exists, particularly between the sexes, despite multiple identified advantages o... Read More about Sex differences in laterality are associated with reproduction in threespine stickleback.

Consistency in the strength of laterality in male, but not female, guppies across different behavioural contexts (2020)
Journal Article
McLean, S., & Morrell, L. J. (2020). Consistency in the strength of laterality in male, but not female, guppies across different behavioural contexts. Biology Letters, 16(5), Article 20190870. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0870

© 2020 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Laterality, the division of brain functions into separate hemispheres, is widespread across animal taxa. Lateralized individuals exhibit cognitive advantages yet substantial va... Read More about Consistency in the strength of laterality in male, but not female, guppies across different behavioural contexts.

Iterated assessment and feedback improves student outcomes (2019)
Journal Article
Morrell, L. J. (2021). Iterated assessment and feedback improves student outcomes. Studies in higher education, 46(3), 485-496. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1643301

Feedback is critically important to student learning, but the reduced frequency of assignments combined with isolated or stand-alone tasks reduces the opportunity for students to engage with feedback and use it effectively to enhance their learning.... Read More about Iterated assessment and feedback improves student outcomes.

Foraging guppies can compensate for low-light conditions, but not via a sensory switch (2019)
Journal Article
Morrell, L. J., Kimbell, H., Chapman, B., & Dobbinson, K. (2019). Foraging guppies can compensate for low-light conditions, but not via a sensory switch. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 73(3), Article 32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-019-2640-9

Animals can adapt to changes in their environment through behavioural or developmental plasticity, but studies of these responses tend to focus on either short-term exposure of adults to the changed conditions, or long-term exposure of juveniles. Juv... Read More about Foraging guppies can compensate for low-light conditions, but not via a sensory switch.

Group size and individual 'personality' influence emergence times in hermit crabs (2018)
Journal Article
Broadhurst, H. E., & Morrell, L. J. (2018). Group size and individual 'personality' influence emergence times in hermit crabs. Bioscience Horizons, 11, Article hzy011. https://doi.org/10.1093/biohorizons/hzy011

Many animals benefit from aggregating due to the anti-predator effects associated with living in groups. Hermit crabs are known to form groups, or ‘clusters’, which may occur at sites of high shell availability. Clustering may also have anti-predator... Read More about Group size and individual 'personality' influence emergence times in hermit crabs.

Local interactions and global properties of wild, free-ranging stickleback shoals (2017)
Journal Article
Ward, A. J. W., Schaerf, T. M., Herbert-Read, J. E., Morrell, L., Sumpter, D. J. T., & Webster, M. M. (2017). Local interactions and global properties of wild, free-ranging stickleback shoals. Royal Society Open Science, 4(7), 170043. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170043

Collective motion describes the global properties of moving groups of animals and the self-organized, coordinated patterns of individual behaviour that produce them. We examined the group-level patterns and local interactions between individuals in w... Read More about Local interactions and global properties of wild, free-ranging stickleback shoals.

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.

'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.

Consequences of variation in predator attack for the evolution of the selfish herd (2014)
Journal Article
Morrell, L. J., Greenwood, L., & Ruxton, G. D. (2015). Consequences of variation in predator attack for the evolution of the selfish herd. Evolutionary Ecology, 29(1), 107-121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-014-9743-6

There is a strong body of evidence that patterns of collective behaviour in grouping animals are governed by interactions between small numbers of individuals within the group. These findings contrast with study of the ‘selfish herd’, where increasin... Read More about Consequences of variation in predator attack for the evolution of the selfish herd.

Prey body size mediates the predation risk associated with being "odd" (2014)
Journal Article
Morrell, L. J., Downing, B., & Rodgers, G. M. (2015). Prey body size mediates the predation risk associated with being "odd". Behavioral ecology, 26(1), 242-246. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/aru185

Despite selection pressures on prey animals to maintain phenotypically homogeneous groups, variation in phenotype within animal groups is commonly observed. Although many prey animals preferentially associate with size-matched individuals, a lack of... Read More about Prey body size mediates the predation risk associated with being "odd".

Why is eusociality an almost exclusively terrestrial phenomenon? (2014)
Journal Article
Ruxton, G. D., Humphries, S., Morrell, L. J., & Wilkinson, D. M. (2014). Why is eusociality an almost exclusively terrestrial phenomenon?. The journal of animal ecology, 83(6), 1248-1255. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12251

1.Eusociality has evolved multiple times across diverse terrestrial taxa, and eusocial species fundamentally shape many terrestrial ecosystems. However, eusocial species are far less common and have much less ecological impact, in aquatic than terres... Read More about Why is eusociality an almost exclusively terrestrial phenomenon?.

Prey aggregation is an effective olfactory predator avoidance strategy (2014)
Journal Article
Johannesen, A., Dunn, A. M., & Morrell, L. J. (in press). Prey aggregation is an effective olfactory predator avoidance strategy. PeerJ, 2014(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.408

Predator–prey interactions have a major effect on species abundance and diversity, and aggregation is a well-known anti-predator behaviour. For immobile prey, the effectiveness of aggregation depends on two conditions: (a) the inability of the predat... Read More about Prey aggregation is an effective olfactory predator avoidance strategy.

Costs of colour change in fish: food intake and behavioural decisions (2013)
Journal Article
Rodgers, G. M., Gladman, N. W., Corless, H. F., & Morrell, L. J. (2013). Costs of colour change in fish: food intake and behavioural decisions. The journal of experimental biology, 216(14), 2760-2767. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.080879

Many animals, particularly reptiles, amphibians, fish and cephalopods, have the ability to change their body colour, for functions including thermoregulation, signalling and predator avoidance. Many fish plastically darken their body colouration in r... Read More about Costs of colour change in fish: food intake and behavioural decisions.

Initiators, leaders, and recruitment mechanisms in the collective movements of damselfish (2013)
Journal Article
Ward, A. J. W., Herbert-Read, J. E., Jordan, L. A., James, R., Krause, J., Ma, Q., …Morrell, L. J. (2013). Initiators, leaders, and recruitment mechanisms in the collective movements of damselfish. The American naturalist, 181(6), 748-760. https://doi.org/10.1086/670242

Explaining how individual behavior and social interac- tions give rise to group-level outcomes and affect issues such as leadership is fundamental to the understanding of collective behavior. Here we examined individual and collective behavioral dyna... Read More about Initiators, leaders, and recruitment mechanisms in the collective movements of damselfish.