Lucon-Xiccato Tyrone, Gatto Elia, Bisazza Angelo
Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Curr Zool. 2020 Feb;66(1):83-90. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoz017. Epub 2019 Apr 19.
In a number of species, males and females have different ecological roles and therefore might be required to solve different problems. Studies on humans have suggested that the 2 sexes often show different efficiencies in problem-solving tasks; similarly, evidence of sex differences has been found in 2 other mammalian species. Here, we assessed whether a teleost fish species, the guppy, , displays sex differences in the ability to solve problems. In Experiment 1, guppies had to learn to dislodge a disc that occluded a feeder from which they had been previously accustomed to feed. In Experiment 2, guppies had to solve a version of the detour task that required them to learn to enter a transparent cylinder from the open sides to reach a food reward previously freely available. We found evidence of sex differences in both problem-solving tasks. In Experiment 1, females clearly outperformed males, and in Experiment 2, guppies showed a reversed but smaller sex difference. This study indicates that sex differences may play an important role in fish's problem-solving similar to what has previously been observed in some mammalian species.
在许多物种中，雄性和雌性具有不同的生态角色，因此可能需要解决不同的问题。对人类的研究表明，两性在解决问题的任务中往往表现出不同的效率；同样，在其他两种哺乳动物物种中也发现了性别差异的证据。在这里，我们评估了一种硬骨鱼——孔雀鱼在解决问题的能力上是否存在性别差异。在实验1中，孔雀鱼必须学会移开一个圆盘，这个圆盘挡住了它们之前习惯取食的喂食器。在实验2中，孔雀鱼必须解决一个迂回任务的变体，该任务要求它们学会从开放的侧面进入一个透明圆柱体，以获得之前可以自由获取的食物奖励。我们在这两个解决问题的任务中都发现了性别差异的证据。在实验1中，雌性明显优于雄性，而在实验2中，孔雀鱼表现出相反但较小的性别差异。这项研究表明，性别差异可能在鱼类解决问题中发挥重要作用，类似于之前在一些哺乳动物物种中观察到的情况。
