Section: Ecology
Topic: Ecology, Evolution, Psychological and cognitive sciences

Bayesian reinforcement learning models reveal how great-tailed grackles improve their behavioral flexibility in serial reversal learning experiments

Lukas, Dieter1  ; McCune, Kelsey2, 3 ; Blaisdell, Aaron4 ; Johnson-Ulrich, Zoe2 ; MacPherson, Maggie2 ; Seitz, Benjamin4 ; Sevchik, August5; Logan, Corina1, 6 
1 Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
2 Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA
3 College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, Auburn University, Auburn, USA
4 Department of Psychology & Brain Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
5 Barrett, The Honors College, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA
6 Neurosciences Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA

10.24072/pcjournal.456 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article no. e88.

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Environments can change suddenly and unpredictably and animals might benefit from being able to flexibly adapt their behavior through learning new associations. Serial (repeated) reversal learning experiments have long been used to investigate differences in behavioral flexibility among individuals and species. In these experiments, individuals initially learn that a reward is associated with a specific cue before the reward is reversed back and forth between cues, forcing individuals to reverse their learned associations. Cues are reliably associated with a reward, but the association between the reward and the cue frequently changes. Here, we apply and expand newly developed Bayesian reinforcement learning models to gain additional insights into how individuals might dynamically modulate their behavioral flexibility if they experience serial reversals. We derive mathematical predictions that, during serial reversal learning experiments, individuals will gain the most rewards if they 1) increase their *rate of updating associations* between cues and the reward to quickly change to a new option after a reversal, and 2) decrease their *sensitivity* to their learned association to explore the alternative option after a reversal. We reanalyzed reversal learning data from 19 wild-caught great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus), eight of whom participated in serial reversal learning experiment, and found that these predictions were supported. Their estimated association-updating rate was more than twice as high at the end of the serial reversal learning experiment than at the beginning, and their estimated sensitivities to their learned associations declined by about a third. The changes in behavioral flexibility that grackles showed in their experience of the serial reversals also influenced their behavior in a subsequent experiment, where individuals with more extreme rates or sensitivities solved more options on a multi-option puzzle box. Our findings offer new insights into how individuals react to uncertainty and changes in their environment, in particular, showing how they can modulate their behavioral flexibility in response to their past experiences.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.456
Type: Research article
Keywords: Behavioral flexibility, comparative cognition, grackle, innovativeness, multi-access box, problem solving, reversal learning

Lukas, Dieter 1; McCune, Kelsey 2, 3; Blaisdell, Aaron 4; Johnson-Ulrich, Zoe 2; MacPherson, Maggie 2; Seitz, Benjamin 4; Sevchik, August 5; Logan, Corina 1, 6

1 Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
2 Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA
3 College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, Auburn University, Auburn, USA
4 Department of Psychology & Brain Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
5 Barrett, The Honors College, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA
6 Neurosciences Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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     title = {Bayesian reinforcement learning models reveal how great-tailed grackles improve their behavioral flexibility in serial reversal learning experiments},
     journal = {Peer Community Journal},
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Lukas, Dieter; McCune, Kelsey; Blaisdell, Aaron; Johnson-Ulrich, Zoe; MacPherson, Maggie; Seitz, Benjamin; Sevchik, August; Logan, Corina. Bayesian reinforcement learning models reveal how great-tailed grackles improve their behavioral flexibility in serial reversal learning experiments. Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article  no. e88. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.456. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.456/

PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.ecology.100468

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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