Abstract
Being able to inhibit certain behaviours is of clear advantage in various situations. In particular, it has been suggested that inhibitory control plays a role in problem-solving and cooperation. Interspecific differences in the capacity for inhibitory control have been attributed to social and ecological factors, while one additional factor, namely domestication, has received only little attention so far. Dogs are an interesting species to test the effects of socio-ecological factors and also the influence of domestication on inhibitory control abilities. While dogs might have been selected for enhanced inhibition skills during domestication, the predictions derived from their socio-ecological background are reversed. Wolves are cooperative hunters and breeders, while dogs predominately scavenge and raise their young alone, accordingly, it would be predicted that dogs show impaired inhibitory control abilities since they no longer rely on these coordinated actions. To test these hypotheses, we assessed inhibitory control abilities in dogs and wolves raised and kept under similar conditions. Moreover, considering the problem of context-specificity in inhibitory control measures, we employed a multiple-test-approach. In line with previous studies, we found that the single inhibition tests did not correlate with each other. Using an exploratory approach, we found three components that explained the variation of behaviours across tests: motivation, flexibility, and perseveration. Interestingly, these inhibition components did not differ between dogs and wolves, which contradicts the predictions based on their socio-ecological backgrounds but also suggests that at least in tasks with minimal human influence, domestication did not affect dogs’ inhibitory control abilities, thus raising questions in regard to the selection processes that might have affected inhibitory control abilities during the course of domestication.
Highlights
The ability to refrain from exhibiting immediate, potentially disadvantageous, behaviours in inappropriate situations certainly provides benefits
The dogs exhibited a slower decision time than the wolves (LM: β = − 0.89, SE = 0.34, t = − 2.38, p = 0.015), while we found no difference between dogs and wolves in the attention component (F = 0.126, p = 0.725)
We found that dogs exhibited a longer choice time compared to wolves (LM: β = − 0.75, SE = 0.32, t = − 2.63, p = 0.026), while we found no difference between dogs and wolves in the flexibility component (F = 0.051, p = 0.823)
Summary
The ability to refrain from exhibiting immediate, potentially disadvantageous, behaviours in inappropriate situations certainly provides benefits. It has been argued that living in complex social organizations, such as fission–fusion groups, requires, apart from enhanced social cognitive abilities (e.g. individual recognition, memory of hierarchy, etc.), inhibitory control and behavioural flexibility in interacting with changing social partners (Aureli et al 2008). One study found that among primate species those living in social groups with higher levels of fission–fusion dynamics exhibited better inhibitory control abilities (Amici et al 2008). Another social factor that potentially requires enhanced inhibitory control abilities is cooperative interactions. Recent findings show that inhibitory control is involved in the expression of inequity aversion, a behavioural mechanism thought to stabilize cooperation in the long-term (Brucks et al 2017b)
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