Abstract
Despite being closely related, dogs perform worse than wolves in independent problem-solving tasks. These differences in problem-solving performance have been attributed to dogs’ greater reliance on humans, who are usually present when problem-solving tasks are presented. However, more fundamental motivational factors or behavioural traits such as persistence, motor diversity and neophobia may also be responsible for differences in task performance. Hence, to better understand what drives the differences between dogs’ and wolves’ problem-solving performance, it is essential to test them in the absence of humans. Here, we tested equally raised and kept dogs and wolves with two unsolvable tasks, a commonly used paradigm to study problem-solving behaviour in these species. Differently from previous studies, we ensured no humans were present in the testing situation. We also ensured that the task was unsolvable from the start, which eliminated the possibility that specific manipulative behaviours were reinforced. This allowed us to measure both persistence and motor diversity more accurately. In line with previous studies, we found wolves to be more persistent than dogs. We also found motor diversity to be linked to persistence and persistence to be linked to contact latency. Finally, subjects were consistent in their performance between the two tasks. These results suggest that fundamental differences in motivation to interact with objects drive the differences in the performance of dogs and wolves in problem-solving tasks. Since correlates of problem-solving success, that is persistence, neophobia, and motor diversity are influenced by a species’ ecology, our results support the socioecological hypothesis, which postulates that the different ecological niches of the two species (dogs have evolved to primarily be scavengers and thrive on and around human refuse, while wolves have evolved to primarily be group hunters and have a low hunting success rate) have, at least partly, shaped their behaviours.
Highlights
Animals need to solve various ecological and social problems to survive
Studies across taxa have found problem-solving success to depend on several psychological propensities. These include neophobia, motor diversity and flexibility and persistence (Lefebvre, Reader & Sol, 2004; Biondi, Bó & Vassallo, 2010; Hiestand, 2011; Cole, Cram & Quinn, 2011; Morand-Ferron et al, 2011; Thornton & Samson, 2012; Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012; Griffin & Guez, 2014; Moretti et al, 2015; Griffin & Diquelou, 2015; Huebner & Fichtel, 2015; Udell, 2015; Borrego & Gaines, 2016). These correlates are interconnected: behavioural flexibility is positively correlated with persistence (Morand-Ferron et al, 2011; Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012; Griffin & Guez, 2014; Huebner & Fichtel, 2015; Borrego & Gaines, 2016) and both are negatively correlated with neophobia (Bouchard, Goodyer & Lefebvre, 2007; Biondi, Bó & Vassallo, 2010; Thornton & Samson, 2012; Sol, Griffin & Bartomeus, 2012; Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012; Griffin & Guez, 2014; Moretti et al, 2015; Borrego & Gaines, 2016)
We evaluated model fits both by their generalized Akaike information criteria (AIC; Akaike, 1974) and by the distribution of the model residual quantile–quantile plots
Summary
Studies across taxa have found problem-solving success to depend on several psychological propensities (referred to as the ‘correlates of problem-solving success’) These include neophobia (the fear of new situations or objects), motor diversity and flexibility (the repertoire of problem-solving behaviours an animal displays, and its ability to find novel solutions to already known problems, or use known solutions to solve novel problems) and persistence (defined as task directed motivation and quantified as the amount of time an animal spends tackling a task) (Lefebvre, Reader & Sol, 2004; Biondi, Bó & Vassallo, 2010; Hiestand, 2011; Cole, Cram & Quinn, 2011; Morand-Ferron et al, 2011; Thornton & Samson, 2012; Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012; Griffin & Guez, 2014; Moretti et al, 2015; Griffin & Diquelou, 2015; Huebner & Fichtel, 2015; Udell, 2015; Borrego & Gaines, 2016). Performing multiple problem-solving experiments over time can help understand consistency in animals’ performance and the effect behavioural types have on the correlates of problem-solving success
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