Learning Performance Is Influenced by the Social Environment in Cichlid Fishes.

It has been hypothesised that some specialised cognitive abilities may have evolved because of the challenges of living in complex social environments. Therefore, more-social species might be able to learn faster than less-social species. The aim of this study was to develop a learning framework to...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale Vol. 74; no. 3; pp. 215 - 228
Autores principales: Stanbrook, Emily, Shultz, Susanne, Jodoin, Joseph, Culbert, Brett, Balshine, Sigal
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Canadian Psychological Association Sep2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=146518883&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ssf
    uiTerm: 146518883
    longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        11961961
        CJX
      jtl: Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale
      issn: 11961961
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Sep2020
      vid: 74
      iid: 3
      pid: 98
      pub: Canadian Psychological Association
    artinfo:
      ui:
        146518883
        10.1037/cep0000236
      ppf: 215
      ppct: 13
      formats:
        fmt:
          @attributes:
            type: P
            size: 1.3MB
      tig:
        atl: Learning Performance Is Influenced by the Social Environment in Cichlid Fishes.
      aug:
        au:
          Stanbrook, Emily
          Shultz, Susanne
          Jodoin, Joseph
          Culbert, Brett
          Balshine, Sigal
        affil:
          University of Manchester
          McMaster University
      su:
        Life history interviews
        Task performance
        Ecology
        Learning
        Group dynamics
        Social context
        Motivation (Psychology)
        Cognition
        Fishes
        Experimental design
        Research methodology
        Comparative studies
      sug:
        subj:
          Life history interviews
          Task performance
          Ecology
          Learning
          Group dynamics
          Social context
          Motivation (Psychology)
          Cognition
          Fishes
          Experimental design
          Research methodology
          Comparative studies
      keyword:
        associative and social learning
        cichlids
        comparative learning
        Lamprologines
        sociality
        apprentissage associatif et social
        apprentissage comparatif
        cichlidés
        Lamprologus
        sociabilité
        associative and social learning
        cichlids
        comparative learning
        Lamprologines
        sociality
        apprentissage associatif et social
        apprentissage comparatif
        cichlidés
        Lamprologus
        sociabilité
      ab: It has been hypothesised that some specialised cognitive abilities may have evolved because of the challenges of living in complex social environments. Therefore, more-social species might be able to learn faster than less-social species. The aim of this study was to develop a learning framework to test how more- and less-social Lamprologine cichlid fishes perform across associative learning tasks. These cichlids are a group of closely related species with similar ecologies and life histories but varying degrees of sociality, making them an ideal group for comparative learning studies. We found that three nongrouping cichlids (Telmatochromis temporalis, Lamprologus meleagris, and Neolamprologus tretocephalus) outperformed three closely related highly social, cooperatively breeding cichlids (N. pulcher, N. multifasciatus, and Julidochromis dickfeldi) on an associative learning task based on food rewards. However, we hypothesised that these differences may be caused by the social environment during testing and might not reflect true cognitive differences. Indeed, when we drilled down and compared just two species across four different social conditions, we found that the social environment during learning trials affected the performance of the highly social N. pulcher and the less-social T. temporalis differently. We then performed further experiments with both N. pulcher and T. temporalis under more natural social settings. Under these more natural social conditions, we found that N. pulcher learned to differentiate accessible and inaccessible shelters faster than T. temporalis. These findings highlight the potential for expanding comparative experiments investigating the relationship between sociality and cognition and emphasise the crucial role social environment plays in learning outcomes.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: N
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N