The signal detection problem of aposematic prey revisited: integrating prior social and personal experience

Data collected during three separate experiments using the \"novel world\" (Alatalo & Mappes, Nature 1996) approach to test how social information changes predator discrimination of novel aposematic prey from a cryptic palatable alternative. Experiments were conducted with great tits (Parus major), captured from the wild and released afterwards, at the University of Jyväskylä Research Station, Konnevesi, Finland (62.6° N, 26.3° E) during three winters (2013-2014, 2016-2017, 2017-2018). Social information was provided by video playback of a demonstrator (adult male) showing an aversive behavioural response to a novel prey signal before observers (juveniles, adults, males, females) searched for prey signals against a background in either an aviary or in a \"miniature novel world\" in an experimental holding box.