Fig. 2

Progressive changes in contest phenotype and its adjustment to assessment-based decisions. (a) Based on the chronological order in which animals first exhibited each behaviour, across contests there was a strong preference for a particular sequence of behaviours. (b) The contribution of consistent predictors, such as trait aggressiveness, resource value factors and morphological measures, varied across sequential outputs, and progressive effects by preceding behaviour were identified. (c) Motivation was also adjusted by resource value, morphology and behavioural information, but was also progressively affected by own energetic state [all models were statistically significant at P < 0.001]