Serial reversal learning and the evolution of behavioral flexibility in three species of North American corvids (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, Nucifraga columbiana, Aphelocoma californica).

Abstract

In serial reversal learning, subjects learn to respond differentially to 2 stimuli. When the task is fully acquired, reward contingencies are reversed, requiring the subject to relearn the altered associations. This alternation of acquisition and reversal can be repeated many times, and the ability of a species to adapt to this regimen has been considered as an indication of behavioral flexibility. Serial reversal learning of 2-choice discriminations was contrasted in 3 related species of North American corvids: pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), which are highly social; Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana), which are relatively solitary but specialized for spatial memory; and western scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica), which are ecological generalists. Pinyon jays displayed significantly lower error rates than did nutcrackers or scrub jays after reversal of reward contingencies for both spatial and color stimuli. The effect was most apparent in the 1st session following each reversal and did not reflect species differences in the rate of initial discrimination learning. All 3 species improved their performance over successive reversals and showed significant transfer between color and spatial tasks, suggesting a generalized learning strategy. The results are consistent with an evolutionary association between behavioral flexibility and social complexity.

Behavioural flexibility and problem-solving in a tropical lizard

“…a single presentation), they needed at least three times fewer presentations to successfully complete the associative learning tasks than what is commonly used in studies testing similar abilities in bird species (e.g. [9,10,14,15] and references therein). This result was unexpected and suggests a possible difference in the tempo at which associations are formed between these groups; further studies are needed to explore the generality of these results.…”

Discrimination reversal learning reveals greater female behavioural flexibility in guppies

“…One possibility is that these sex differences are related to the different social and parental roles of males and females. For example, some authors [1,13] have suggested that the evolution of flexible behaviours may be promoted by high parental investment and complex social life, two traits that differ markedly between male and female guppies [21,22].…”

“…Yet sometimes the environment changes rapidly, and individuals must be able to inhibit a previously learned behaviour to issue a new, more appropriate response. The degree of cognitive flexibility varies considerably among species [1], but substantial individual variation for this trait is also reported within species, for example in relation to age or personality [2,3].…”

A property cluster theory of cognition

“…The best established extension is expressed in the verdict of homology between the mammalian and avian hippocampus, which reflects a recent sea change in thinking about the neural substrates of cognitive flexibility in birds (Columbo & Broadbent, 2000). Further bolstering this extension, a body of excellent, interdisciplinary comparative work has been conducted by Kamil, Balda, Bond, and associates investigating correlations between multiple forms of behavioral flexibility and hippocampal volume in corvids (Kamil, Balda, & Olsen, 1994;Bond, Balda, and Kamil, 2007). A recognizable form of the hippocampal formation dates back to fish, and Day presents a cladogram summarizing evidence that the formation supports a cluster of cognitive capacities across a swathe of vertebrates (Day, 2003).…”