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The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?

Individual differences in performances on cognitive tasks have been found to differ according to social rank across multiple species. However, it is not clear whether an individual’s cognitive performance is flexible and the result of their current social rank, modulated by social interactions (soci...

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Autores principales: Langley, Ellis J.G., van Horik, Jayden O., Whiteside, Mark A., Beardsworth, Christine E., Madden, Joah R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6238775/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30479883
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5738
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author Langley, Ellis J.G.
van Horik, Jayden O.
Whiteside, Mark A.
Beardsworth, Christine E.
Madden, Joah R.
author_facet Langley, Ellis J.G.
van Horik, Jayden O.
Whiteside, Mark A.
Beardsworth, Christine E.
Madden, Joah R.
author_sort Langley, Ellis J.G.
collection PubMed
description Individual differences in performances on cognitive tasks have been found to differ according to social rank across multiple species. However, it is not clear whether an individual’s cognitive performance is flexible and the result of their current social rank, modulated by social interactions (social state dependent hypothesis), or if it is determined prior to the formation of the social hierarchy and indeed influences an individual’s rank (prior attributes hypothesis). We separated these two hypotheses by measuring learning performance of male pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, on a spatial discrimination task as chicks and again as adults. We inferred adult male social rank from observing agonistic interactions while housed in captive multi-male multi-female groups. Learning performance of adult males was assayed after social rank had been standardised; by housing single males with two or four females. We predicted that if cognitive abilities determine social rank formation we would observe: consistency between chick and adult performances on the cognitive task and chick performance would predict adult social rank. We found that learning performances were consistent from chicks to adults for task accuracy, but not for speed of learning and chick learning performances were not related to adult social rank. Therefore, we could not support the prior attributes hypothesis of cognitive abilities aiding social rank formation. Instead, we found that individual differences in learning performances of adults were predicted by the number of females a male was housed with; males housed with four females had higher levels of learning performance than males housed with two females; and their most recent recording of captive social rank, even though learning performance was assayed while males were in a standardized, non-competitive environment. This does not support the hypothesis that direct social pressures are causing the inter-individual variation in learning performances that we observe. Instead, our results suggest that there may be carry-over effects of aggressive social interactions on learning performance. Consequently, whether early life spatial learning performances influence social rank is unclear but these performances are modulated by the current social environment and a male’s most recent social rank.
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spelling pubmed-62387752018-11-26 The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence? Langley, Ellis J.G. van Horik, Jayden O. Whiteside, Mark A. Beardsworth, Christine E. Madden, Joah R. PeerJ Animal Behavior Individual differences in performances on cognitive tasks have been found to differ according to social rank across multiple species. However, it is not clear whether an individual’s cognitive performance is flexible and the result of their current social rank, modulated by social interactions (social state dependent hypothesis), or if it is determined prior to the formation of the social hierarchy and indeed influences an individual’s rank (prior attributes hypothesis). We separated these two hypotheses by measuring learning performance of male pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, on a spatial discrimination task as chicks and again as adults. We inferred adult male social rank from observing agonistic interactions while housed in captive multi-male multi-female groups. Learning performance of adult males was assayed after social rank had been standardised; by housing single males with two or four females. We predicted that if cognitive abilities determine social rank formation we would observe: consistency between chick and adult performances on the cognitive task and chick performance would predict adult social rank. We found that learning performances were consistent from chicks to adults for task accuracy, but not for speed of learning and chick learning performances were not related to adult social rank. Therefore, we could not support the prior attributes hypothesis of cognitive abilities aiding social rank formation. Instead, we found that individual differences in learning performances of adults were predicted by the number of females a male was housed with; males housed with four females had higher levels of learning performance than males housed with two females; and their most recent recording of captive social rank, even though learning performance was assayed while males were in a standardized, non-competitive environment. This does not support the hypothesis that direct social pressures are causing the inter-individual variation in learning performances that we observe. Instead, our results suggest that there may be carry-over effects of aggressive social interactions on learning performance. Consequently, whether early life spatial learning performances influence social rank is unclear but these performances are modulated by the current social environment and a male’s most recent social rank. PeerJ Inc. 2018-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6238775/ /pubmed/30479883 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5738 Text en ©2018 Langley et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Langley, Ellis J.G.
van Horik, Jayden O.
Whiteside, Mark A.
Beardsworth, Christine E.
Madden, Joah R.
The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?
title The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?
title_full The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?
title_fullStr The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?
title_full_unstemmed The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?
title_short The relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, Phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?
title_sort relationship between social rank and spatial learning in pheasants, phasianus colchicus: cause or consequence?
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6238775/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30479883
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5738
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