Individual personality differences in goats predict their performance in visual learning and non-associative cognitive tasks

Abstract

Variation in common personality traits, such as boldness or exploration, is often associated with risk-reward trade-offs and behavioural flexibility. To date, only a few studies have examined the effects of consistent behavioural traits on both learning and cognition. We investigated whether certain personality traits ('exploration' and 'sociability') of individuals were related to cognitive performance, learning flexibility and learning style in a social ungulate species, the goat (Capra hircus). We also investigated whether a preference for feature cues rather than impaired learning abilities can explain performance variation in a visual discrimination task. We found that personality scores were consistent across time and context. Less explorative goats performed better in a non-associative cognitive task, in which subjects had to follow the trajectory of a hidden object (i.e. testing their ability for object permanence). We also found that less sociable subjects performed better compared to more sociable goats in a visual discrimination task. Good visual learning performance was associated with a preference for feature cues, indicating personality-dependent learning strategies in goats. Our results suggest that personality traits predict the outcome in visual discrimination and non-associative cognitive tasks in goats and that impaired performance in a visual discrimination tasks does not necessarily imply impaired learning capacities, but rather can be explained by a varying preference for feature cues.

More Than Eggs – Relationship Between Productivity and Learning in Laying Hens

“…Therefore, it is likely that in the here presented experiment, high productive lines may experience less social stress when separated from the flock for testing and therefore perform better in the given task. Such a result could be shown in goats, where individuals with a lower level of social motivation performed better in a visual discrimination task ( Nawroth et al, 2017 ). In general, the here tested chicken lines could vary in their distribution of personality types ( Dudde et al, 2018 ).…”

How does cognition shape social relationships?

“…The association between social relationships and individual differences in learning and memory has been most extensively examined in correlational studies of social rank and cognitive performance (table 1; [35][36][37][38][39][40]). In comparison, relatively few studies on learning ability have focused on aspects of social behaviour besides social rank [43]. Although correlational studies suggest that learning ability may be associated with competitive interactions, the precise nature of these relationships is unclear, as evidence that cognitive differences existed prior to the establishment of dominance is often lacking [69].…”

Habitat and social context affect memory phenotype, exploration and covariance among these traits

“…Studies so far indicate considerable variation both between and within species in the relationship between exploration and cognitive performance, with no clear pattern emerging (reviewed in [ 12 ]). For example, among-species, fast-exploring goats demonstrated slower acquisition of a visual discrimination task [ 13 ], whereas fast-exploring cavies were quicker to learn object discrimination [ 14 ]. Within-species, exploratory behaviour does not appear related to speed of acquiring information in instrumental discrimination, colour association or detour-reaching tasks in black-capped chickadees; however, slow-explorers showed greater accuracy during recall [ 15 ].…”