Lambert Connor T, Balasubramanian Gopika, Camacho-Alpízar Andrés, Guillette Lauren M
Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3, Canada.
Anim Cogn. 2022 Jun;25(3):605-615. doi: 10.1007/s10071-021-01577-2. Epub 2021 Nov 19.
Nest-building behaviour in birds may be particularly relevant to investigating the evolution of physical cognition, as nest building engages cognitive mechanisms for the use and manipulation of materials. We hypothesized that nest-building ecology may be related to physical cognitive abilities. To test our hypothesis, we used zebra finches, which have sex-differentiated roles in nest building. We tested 16 male and 16 female zebra finches on three discrimination tasks in the following order: length discrimination, flexibility discrimination, and color discrimination, using different types of string. We predicted that male zebra finches, which select and deposit the majority of nesting material and are the primary nest builders in this species, would learn to discriminate string length and flexibility-structural traits relevant to nest building-in fewer trials compared to females, but that the sexes would learn color discrimination (not structurally relevant to nest building) in a similar number of trials. Contrary to these predictions, male and female zebra finches did not differ in their speed to learn any of the three tasks. There was, however, consistent among-individual variation in performance: learning speed was positively correlated across the tasks. Our findings suggest that male and female zebra finches either (1) do not differ in their physical cognitive abilities, or (2) any cognitive sex differences in zebra finches are more specific to tasks more closely associated with nest building. Our experiment is the first to examine the potential evolutionary relationship between nest building and physical cognitive abilities.
鸟类的筑巢行为可能与研究物理认知的进化特别相关，因为筑巢涉及到对材料的使用和操作的认知机制。我们假设筑巢生态可能与物理认知能力有关。为了验证我们的假设，我们使用了斑胸草雀，它们在筑巢中具有性别分化的角色。我们按照以下顺序对16只雄性和16只雌性斑胸草雀进行了三项辨别任务测试：长度辨别、柔韧性辨别和颜色辨别，使用了不同类型的绳子。我们预测，雄性斑胸草雀选择并放置了大部分筑巢材料，是该物种的主要筑巢者，与雌性相比，它们将在更少的试验次数中学会辨别与筑巢相关的绳子长度和柔韧性——结构特征，但两性将在相似的试验次数中学会颜色辨别（与筑巢无关）。与这些预测相反，雄性和雌性斑胸草雀在学习这三项任务的速度上没有差异。然而，个体表现存在一致的差异：学习速度在各项任务之间呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，雄性和雌性斑胸草雀要么（1）在物理认知能力上没有差异，要么（2）斑胸草雀中任何认知上的性别差异在与筑巢更密切相关的任务中更为具体。我们的实验是第一个研究筑巢与物理认知能力之间潜在进化关系的实验。
