Generalization of learned preferences covaries with behavioral flexibility in red junglefowl chicks
| Autor: | Hanne Løvlie, Alexandra C. V. Balogh, Josefina Zidar, Olof Leimar |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
animal structures
learning animal cognition media_common.quotation_subject Flexibility (personality) Gallus gallus Original Articles Biology Ethology animal personality Red junglefowl coping style Generalization (learning) Behavioral Sciences Biology biology.domesticated_animal Personality Animal Science and Zoology Animal cognition Biological sciences Etologi Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Cognitive psychology media_common |
| Zdroj: | Behavioral Ecology |
| Popis: | The relationship between animal cognition and consistent among-individual behavioral differences (i.e., behavioral types, animal personality, or coping styles), has recently received increased research attention. Focus has mainly been on linking different behavioral types to performance in learning tasks. It has been suggested that behavioral differences could influence also how individuals use previously learnt information to generalize about new stimuli with similar properties. Nonetheless, this has rarely been empirically tested. Here, we therefore explore the possibility that individual variation in generalization is related to variation in behavioral types in red junglefowl chicks (Gallus gallus). We show that more behaviorally flexible chicks have a stronger preference for a novel stimulus that is intermediate between 2 learnt positive stimuli compared to more inflexible chicks. Thus, more flexible and inflexible chicks differ in how they generalize. Further, behavioral flexibility correlates with fearfulness, suggesting a coping style, supporting that variation in generalization is related to variation in behavioral types. How individuals generalize affects decision making and responses to novel situations or objects, and can thus have a broad influence on the life of an individual. Our results add to the growing body of evidence linking cognition to consistent behavioral differences. Red junglefowl chicks generalize learned preferences differently depending on their behavioral type (aka personality). When an individual generalizes, previous experiences are used when responding to novel situations or objects. Variation in generalization can thus affect decision making and the action taken when responding to novel situations. Here, we show that more cognitively flexible chicks react more strongly to a novel stimulus in a generalization task than less flexible chicks do. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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