Section: Ecology
Topic:
Ecology,
Population biology,
Neuroscience
Do the more flexible individuals rely more on causal cognition? Observation versus intervention in causal inference in great-tailed grackles
Corresponding author(s): Blaisdell, Aaron (blaisdell@psych.ucla.edu)
10.24072/pcjournal.44 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 1 (2021), article no. e50.
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Behavioral flexibility, the ability to change behavior when circumstances change based on learning from previous experience, is thought to play an important role in a species ability to successfully adapt to new environments and expand its geographic range. It is alternatively or additionally possible that causal cognition, the ability to understand relationships beyond their statistical covariations, could play a significant role in rapid range expansions via the ability to learn faster: causal cognition could lead to making better predictions about outcomes through exerting more control over events. We aim to determine whether great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus), a species that is rapidly expanding its geographic range, use causal inference and whether this ability relates to their behavioral flexibility (flexibility measured in these individuals by Logan et al. (2019): reversal learning of a color discrimination and solution switching on a puzzle box). Causal cognition was measured using a touchscreen where individuals learned about the relationships between a star, a tone, a clicking noise, and food. They were then tested on their expectations about which of these causes the food to become available. We found that eight grackles showed no evidence of making causal inferences when given the opportunity to intervene on observed events using a touchscreen apparatus, and that performance on the causal cognition task did not correlate with behavioral flexibility measures. This could indicate that our test was inadequate to assess causal cognition. Because of this, we are unable to speculate about the potential role of causal cognition in a species that is rapidly expanding its geographic range. We suggest further exploration of this hypothesis using larger sample sizes and multiple test paradigms.
Type: Research article
Blaisdell, Aaron 1; Seitz, Benjamin 1; Rowney, Carolyn 2; Folsom, Melissa 2; MacPherson, Maggie 3; Deffner, Dominik 2; Logan, Corina J 2
CC-BY 4.0
@article{10_24072_pcjournal_44,
author = {Blaisdell, Aaron and Seitz, Benjamin and Rowney, Carolyn and Folsom, Melissa and MacPherson, Maggie and Deffner, Dominik and Logan, Corina J},
title = {Do the more flexible individuals rely more on causal cognition? {Observation} versus intervention in causal inference in great-tailed grackles},
journal = {Peer Community Journal},
eid = {e50},
publisher = {Peer Community In},
volume = {1},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.24072/pcjournal.44},
url = {https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.44/}
}
TY - JOUR AU - Blaisdell, Aaron AU - Seitz, Benjamin AU - Rowney, Carolyn AU - Folsom, Melissa AU - MacPherson, Maggie AU - Deffner, Dominik AU - Logan, Corina J TI - Do the more flexible individuals rely more on causal cognition? Observation versus intervention in causal inference in great-tailed grackles JO - Peer Community Journal PY - 2021 VL - 1 PB - Peer Community In UR - https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.44/ DO - 10.24072/pcjournal.44 ID - 10_24072_pcjournal_44 ER -
%0 Journal Article %A Blaisdell, Aaron %A Seitz, Benjamin %A Rowney, Carolyn %A Folsom, Melissa %A MacPherson, Maggie %A Deffner, Dominik %A Logan, Corina J %T Do the more flexible individuals rely more on causal cognition? Observation versus intervention in causal inference in great-tailed grackles %J Peer Community Journal %D 2021 %V 1 %I Peer Community In %U https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.44/ %R 10.24072/pcjournal.44 %F 10_24072_pcjournal_44
Blaisdell, Aaron; Seitz, Benjamin; Rowney, Carolyn; Folsom, Melissa; MacPherson, Maggie; Deffner, Dominik; Logan, Corina J. Do the more flexible individuals rely more on causal cognition? Observation versus intervention in causal inference in great-tailed grackles. Peer Community Journal, Volume 1 (2021), article no. e50. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.44. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.44/
PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.ecology.100076
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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