A. C. Perdeck
A. C. Perdeck is the co-author, with Nikolaas Tinbergen, of the herring gull chick study that gave the supernormal stimulus its founding experiment. The vault holds very little else about him, and this page is short for that reason.
Who they are
The paper is the only verified trace of Perdeck on this site. It reports experiments in which newly hatched herring gull chicks were shown models in place of the parent bird, to find which features of the parent release the begging response. The chicks answered a red mark on a long, thin, yellow shape. A stick longer than the real bill, with a higher-contrast red patch, drew harder pecking than the bill did.
Nothing about Perdeck's career, institution or later work has been verified for this page, and none is claimed. If a verified biography is added to the vault, this page should be extended.
Key papers
Tinbergen, N., & Perdeck, A. C. On the stimulus situation releasing the begging response in the newly hatched herring gull chick (Larus argentatus argentatus Pont.). Behaviour, 3(1), 1-39. doi:10.1163/156853951X00197. The publisher's record dates the issue 1951, and the paper is often cited as 1950.
Key ideas
The paper is the standard source for the model experiments behind the term supernormal stimulus. It shows that a begging response can be released by a single feature of the parent, and that an exaggerated version of that feature can release it more strongly than the real thing.
Sources
- Tinbergen and Perdeck's paper in Behaviour, 3(1), 1-39, record checked through Crossref. The paper's full text was not read for this page.