Abstract
BackgroundAnimals show consistent individual behavioural differences in many species. Further, behavioural traits (personality traits) form behavioural syndromes, characterised by correlations between different behaviours. Mechanisms maintaining these correlations could be constrained due to underlying relationships with cognitive traits. There is growing evidence for the non-independence of animal personality and general cognitive abilities in animals, but so far, studies on the direction of the relationship between them revealed contradictory results. Still, it is hypothesised that individuals may exhibit consistent learning and decision styles. Fast behavioural types (consistently bolder and more active individuals) are expected to show faster learning styles. Slow behavioural types in contrast are assumed to learn slower but more accurately. This can be caused by a speed-accuracy trade-off that individuals face during decision making. We measured the repeatability of three personality and four spatial cognitive traits in adult Eurasian harvest mice (Micromys minutus). We analysed correlations among personality traits (behavioural syndrome). We further investigated the relationships between personality and spatial cognitive traits as a first step exploring the potential connection between personality and cognition in this species.ResultsOur results showed that exploration, activity and boldness were repeatable in adult mice. Spatial recognition measured in a Y Maze was also significantly repeatable, as well as spatial learning performance and decision speed. We found no repeatability of decision accuracy. Harvest mice showed a behavioural syndrome as we observed strong positive correlations between personality traits. The speed-accuracy trade-off was not apparent within, nor between individuals. Nevertheless, we found weak evidence for a relationship between personality and spatial cognitive traits as fast behavioural types learned a spatial orientation task faster than slow types, and shyer harvest mice made decisions quicker than bolder mice.ConclusionsGiven these correlations, our data provided some first insights into the relationship between personality and spatial cognitive traits in harvest mice and will hopefully stimulate more studies in this field.
Highlights
Animals show consistent individual behavioural differences in many species
Cognitive traits in general provide the basis of any other behaviour as they refer to the capacity of individuals to acquire, process, store and remember information [49]
We further evaluated the evidence for a behavioural syndrome in this species, based on the previously described personality traits boldness, activity, and exploration [48]
Summary
Animals show consistent individual behavioural differences in many species. Fast behavioural types (consistently bolder and more active individuals) are expected to show faster learning styles. Slow behavioural types in contrast are assumed to learn slower but more accurately. This can be caused by a speed-accuracy trade-off that individuals face during decision making. If adaptive cognitive behaviour can be achieved through different strategies, or if animals face consistent trade-offs when solving cognitive tasks, we would expect to observe cognitive styles. Cognitive styles refer to how individuals acquire, process, store, and remember information, and these strategies are expected to be consistent across time and contexts [53]. Consistent cognitive styles can arise, for instance, due to constant decision-making behaviour. Recent data showed that both cognitive styles (fast vs. accurate) can occur in a population side by side [60], indicating that both styles might be similar adaptive under specific environmental conditions
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