Animal cognition in the field: performance of wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) on a reversal learning task

Kumpan, L. Tamara; Smeltzer, Eve A; Teichroeb, Julie A.

doi:10.1007/s10071-020-01356-5

Cited by 16 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…This acquisition deficit was explained as a deficit in attending the relevant stimulus. On the contrary, Kumpan et al [125] and Tsuchida et al [126] showed that this age impairment was only found in the reversal phase. Tsuchida et al [126] explained that old monkey's deficit was due to an impairment of understanding the royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R. Soc.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Heterogeneity of performances in several inhibitory control tasks: male rhesus macaques are more easily distracted than females

et al. 2021

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Inhibitory control, the ability to override a dominant response, is crucial in many aspects of everyday life. In animal studies, striking individual variations are often largely ignored and their causes rarely considered. Hence, our aims were to systematically investigate individual variability in inhibitory control, to replicate the most common causes of individual variation (age, sex and rank) and to determine if these factors had a consistent effect on three main components of inhibitory control (inhibition of a distraction, inhibition of an action, inhibition of a cognitive set). We tested 21 rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta ) in a battery of validated touchscreen tasks. We first found individual variations in all inhibitory control performances. We then demonstrated that males had poorer performances to inhibit a distraction and that middle-aged individuals exhibited poorer performance in the inhibition of a cognitive set. Hence, the factors of age and sex were not consistently associated with the main components of inhibitory control, suggesting a multi-faceted structure. The rank of the subjects did not influence any inhibitory control performances. This study adopts a novel approach for animal behaviour studies and gives new insight into the individual variability of inhibitory control which is crucial to understand its evolutionary underpinnings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Heterogeneity of performances in several inhibitory control tasks: male rhesus macaques are more easily distracted than females

et al. 2021

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“…This discrepancy may arise from animals using different strategies to learn reversal tasks, namely associative learning processes or rule-based learning mechanisms (e.g. win-stay lose-shift rule), or from different memory interference and forgetting mechanisms (Kumpan, et al 2020, Tello-Ramos, et al 2019. Behavioural and cognitive flexibility can increase survival in the face of novel predators or environments, and thus is likely to be favoured under predation risk (Sih, et al 2010, Sol, et al 2005.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early predation risk shapes adult learning and cognitive flexibility

Pouca

Mitchell

Lefèvre

et al. 2021

Oikos

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Predation risk during early ontogeny can impact developmental trajectories and permanently alter adult phenotypes. Such phenotypic plasticity often leads to adaptive changes in traits involved in anti-predator responses. While plastic changes in cognition may increase survival, it remains unclear whether early predation experience shapes cognitive investment and drives developmental plasticity in cognitive abilities. Here, we show that predation risk during early ontogeny induces developmental plasticity in two cognitive domains. We reared female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) with and without predator cues and tested their adult cognitive abilities. We found that females reared under simulated predation took longer to learn a simple association task, yet outperformed animals reared without predation threat in a reversal learning task testing cognitive flexibility. These results show that predation pressure during ontogeny shapes adult cognitive abilities, which we argue is likely to be adaptive. Our study highlights the important role of predator-mediated developmental plasticity on cognitive investment in natural populations and the general role of plasticity in cognitive performance.

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“…The focal individual's ability to inhibit the motor impulse to try to reach the reward through the long side of the cylinder, which forms a transparent barrier between the individual and the reward, and detour to take the reward from the open ends is assessed [6]. In recent years, behavioural inhibition performance has been tested in a wide range of species (for example: cats, Felis catus [7]; common waxbills, Estrilda astrild [8]; dogs, Canis familiaris [9]; goats, Capra aegagrus hircus [10]; great tits, Parus major [11]; guppies, Poecilia reticulata [12]; sailfin molly, Poecilia latipinna [13]; vervet monkeys, Chlorocebus pygerythrus [14]). A large-scale study by MacLean et al [15] compared inhibitory abilities in 36 species and found a positive correlation between absolute brain size and motor inhibitory control [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning and motor inhibitory control in crows and domestic chickens

2021

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Cognitive abilities allow animals to navigate through complex, fluctuating environments. In the present study, we tested the performance of a captive group of eight crows, Corvus corone and 10 domestic chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus , in the cylinder task, as a test of motor inhibitory control and reversal learning as a measure of learning ability and behavioural flexibility. Four crows and nine chickens completed the cylinder task, eight crows and six chickens completed the reversal learning experiment. Crows performed better in the cylinder task compared with chickens. In the reversal learning experiment, species did not significantly differ in the number of trials until the learning criterion was reached. The performance in the reversal learning experiment did not correlate with performance in the cylinder task in chickens. Our results suggest crows to possess better motor inhibitory control compared with chickens. By contrast, learning performance in a reversal learning task did not differ between the species, indicating similar levels of behavioural flexibility. Interestingly, we describe notable individual differences in performance. We stress the importance not only to compare cognitive performance between species but also between individuals of the same species when investigating the evolution of cognitive skills.

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Animal cognition in the field: performance of wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) on a reversal learning task

Cited by 16 publications

References 52 publications

Heterogeneity of performances in several inhibitory control tasks: male rhesus macaques are more easily distracted than females

Heterogeneity of performances in several inhibitory control tasks: male rhesus macaques are more easily distracted than females

Early predation risk shapes adult learning and cognitive flexibility

Learning and motor inhibitory control in crows and domestic chickens

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