Where does lure collide?

In behavioural ecology, a lure is a signal or structure a predator uses to attract its prey by imitating something the prey seeks, a tactic called aggressive mimicry. Lloyd's 1965 Aggressive mimicry in Photuris: Firefly femmes fatales documented female Photuris fireflies that mimic the flash answers of other firefly species' females to draw in and devour the responding males; the flash itself is the lure. The same construct covers the anglerfish's illuminated esca and spiders that emit prey pheromones. The referent is a deceptive attractant signal in a predator–prey system, quantified by how many prey it draws and the predator's resulting capture success, and it is unrelated to a falconer's recall decoy or a memory-test probe beyond the shared notion of drawing a target in.[1]

Unit

The attraction and capture success a deceptive signal produces in targeted prey

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Assessed by prey approach and capture rates in response to the mimetic signal versus controls

In memory research, a lure is a critical item that was never presented but is strongly associated with a studied list, used to elicit and measure false memory. In the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, participants study lists of words (bed, rest, tired, …) that all converge on a non-presented critical lure (sleep) and then confidently recall or recognise that lure as though it had appeared. Roediger and McDermott's 1995 Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists established the lure as the engine of a robust laboratory false-memory effect. The referent is a non-studied, associatively related probe whose erroneous endorsement indexes memory distortion, not a falconer's decoy or a predator's bait.[2]

Unit

The false-recall or false-recognition rate for the non-presented critical item

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Measured by the proportion of participants who falsely recall or recognise the critical lure, and their reported confidence