Lermite Françoise, Peneaux Chloé, Griffin Andrea S
School of psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Behav Processes. 2017 Jan;134:87-94. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2016.09.013. Epub 2016 Oct 4.
Animals show consistent individual differences in behaviour across time and/or contexts. Recently, it has been suggested that proactive personality types might also exhibit fast cognitive styles. The speed with which individuals sample environmental cues is one way in which correlations between personality and cognition might arise. Here, we measured a collection of behavioural traits (competitiveness, neophobia, neophilia, task-directed motivation and exploration) in common mynas (Acridotheres tristis) and measured their relationship with problem solving. We predicted that fast solving mynas would interact with (i.e. sample) the problem solving task at higher rates, but also be more competitive, less neophobic, more neophilic, and more exploratory. Mynas that were faster to solve a novel foraging problem were no more competitive around food and no more inclined to take risks. Unexpectedly, these fast-solving mynas had higher rates of interactions with the task, but also displayed lower levels of exploration. It is possible that a negative relation between problem solving and spatial exploration arose as a consequence of how inter-individual variation in exploration was quantified. We discuss the need for greater consensus on how to measure exploratory behaviour before we can advance our understanding of relationships between cognition and personality more effectively.
动物在行为上会表现出跨越时间和/或情境的一致个体差异。最近，有人提出积极主动的性格类型可能也会展现出快速的认知风格。个体对环境线索进行采样的速度是性格与认知之间可能产生关联的一种方式。在此，我们测量了家八哥（Acridotheres tristis）的一系列行为特征（竞争力、新事物恐惧、新事物喜好、任务导向动机和探索行为），并测量了它们与解决问题能力之间的关系。我们预测，解决问题速度快的家八哥会以更高的频率与（即采样）解决问题任务进行互动，而且会更具竞争力、更少新事物恐惧、更多新事物喜好且更具探索性。解决新觅食问题速度更快的家八哥在食物周围并不更具竞争力，也没有更倾向于冒险。出乎意料的是，这些解决问题速度快的家八哥与任务的互动频率更高，但探索水平也更低。解决问题与空间探索之间的负相关关系有可能是由于对探索行为个体间差异的量化方式所导致的。我们讨论了在能够更有效地推进我们对认知与性格之间关系的理解之前，在如何测量探索行为方面达成更大共识的必要性。
