Animals must gather information from a fluctuating environment to reduce uncertainty and make decisions directly tied to survival and reproduction. For species that engage in agonistic contests over resources, information gained during contests can be used to make decisions about costly behaviors such as contest persistence and potential escalation. Signals can play an important role in modulating contest dynamics as well as playing a direct role in the outcome of a contest (i.e. retreating behavior). For example, gathering information about an opponent’s asymmetries compared to oneself (i.e. size, body condition, aggressiveness) may reduce costly behavioral errors. While understanding the role of a signal in these behaviors is important, input from multiple sensory modalities must be considered to realistically ascertain the complexity of these behavioral decisions. Crayfish are one of several decapod crustacean species that have been established as models for the role that chemical signals play in agonistic behavior contests. However, while we know that chemicals play an integral role in contest assessment and that chemical signals tend to play a larger role than other modalities (i.e. visual or tactile signals), we do not know the compounding role of all these signals. In other words, we do not know the intricacies of the information hierarchy that crayfish use during contest behavior. This study aims to tease apart that hierarchy and elucidate the context specific usage of three sensory modalities and their role in decision making during contest behavior.