BioConcepts

sign stimulusSignalreiz (ger.)

• The component or characteristic of an external stimulus which is effective in initiating a particular innate behavioural response in an animal perceiving it, regardless of the presence or absence of the remainder of the stimulus. (OED 2012)
  category perception

  1880

  ausgelöst durch Signalreize, welche auf centripetalen Bahnen […] dem Centrum […] zugeleitet werden

  Wundt, W. (1873/80). Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie, vol. 1: 354; cf. 355; Fechner, G.T. (1882). Revision der Hauptpuncte der Psychophysik: 265.

  1934

  The principle of representative stimuli, or sign stimuli as we may call them for short, is illustrated not only in the flight reactions of animals […] but even more clearly in […] food-finding behaviour.

  Russell, E.S. (1934). The Behaviour of Animals. An Introduction to Its study: 33.

  1936

  The fish-leech Piscicola responds to any source of water-vibration, not too far away, by directing its anterior end towards it. This may lead to its fixing itself on a fish, and water-vibration might accordingly be called a sign-stimulus, “meaning” the approach of a possible host.

  Russell, E.S. (1936). Playing with a dog. The Quarterly Review of Biology 11, 1-15: 10.

  1948

  not the red as such is a sign stimulus, but a red part of the body in a definite spatial relation to the body as a whole.

  Tinbergen, N. (1948). Social releasers and the experimental method required for their study. Wilson Bulletin 60, 6-52: 34.

  1975

  The first concept we shall examine is the sign stimulus or releaser, that portion of the total stimulus configuration which acts as the effective cue in releasing a specific behavior pattern.

  Alcock, J. (1975). Animal Behavior: 153.