The novel world method is a technique used in animal behaviour experiments that address questions on the evolution of warning signals (e.g. conspicuous colour patterns such as yellow and black stripes) that chemically defended prey (e.g. toxic insects) use to deter predators (i.e. aposematism), and also on warning signal mimicry.
In the novel world, great tits (Parus major) are presented with a foraging task: they search and eat artificial prey in an indoor aviary built in a laboratory.
The prey items are pieces of almond in paper shells that typically bear a black-and-white symbol as a signal (designed by the researcher) instead of a colour pattern.
Novel world studies are “theoretical experiments” where for example the defence efficacy (bad taste), relative and absolute abundance, visibility or the degree of signal similarity of different prey types is manipulated, and the number of bird attacks on each prey type is recorded.
By 2012, twenty articles based on novel world experiments had been published in scientific journals.