Abstract
Understanding the relationships between cognitive abilities and fitness is integral to an evolutionary study of brain and behavior. However, these relationships are often difficult to measure and detect. Here we draw upon an opportunistic sample of brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) subjects that had two separate research experiences: First, they engaged in a large series of cognitive tests in David Sherry’s Lab in the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) at Western University, then subsequently moved to the Field Avian Research Megalab (FARM) at Wilfrid Laurier University where they lived in large breeding flocks in aviaries with other wild-caught cowbirds. Thus, we had extensive measures of cognitive abilities, breeding behavior, and reproductive success for these birds. We report here, for the fist time, the surprisingly strong connections we found among these different measures. Female cowbirds’ spatial cognitive abilities correlated positively with how intensely they were courted by males, and with their overall egg production. Males’ spatial cognition correlated positively with their ability to engage in singing contests (“countersinging”) with other males. In addition, a separate non-spatial cognitive ability correlated positively with the attractiveness of the songs they sung. In sum, these results suggest the cognitive skills assessed in the lab were strongly connected to breeding behavior and reproductive success. Moreover, since certain cognitive abilities related to different aspects of breeding success, it suggests that cognitive modules may have specialized adaptive value, but also that these specialized skills may interact and influence fitness in surprising ways.
Highlights
The integration of evolutionary theory into studies of the brain and its processes created a paradigmatic shift in the study of learning and behavior (Rozin & Kalat, 1971; Shettleworth, 2010)
Each subject tested at Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) completed between 90 and 374 different cognitive tests
Examining all subjects tested at AFAR, patterns of relative consistency in performance led us to create two cognitive scores: one based on spatial cognition tasks and one on color cognition tasks because males and females demonstrated more consistency in responding within these task types than between them
Summary
The integration of evolutionary theory into studies of the brain and its processes created a paradigmatic shift in the study of learning and behavior (Rozin & Kalat, 1971; Shettleworth, 2010). One challenge involved in taking an integrative approach to studying cognition is that it requires examining both mechanism and function, which is often beyond the scope of one research program. Mechanistic approaches that study the neurobiology and stimulus control of cognitive processes typically require the laboratory, where confounding variables like prior experience, motivation, and social learning can be controlled. The laboratory, often does not allow for measurement of the fitness consequences of cognitive abilities. These types of questions most often must be
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