Abstract
ABSTRACTWe tested zebrafish shoals to examine whether groups exhibit collective spatial learning and whether this relates to the personality of group members. To do this we trained shoals to associate a collective spatial decision with a reward and tested whether shoals could reorient to the learned location from a new starting point. There were strong indications of collective learning and collective reorienting, most likely by memorising distal cues, but these processes were unrelated to personality differences within shoals. However, there was evidence that group decisions require agreement between differing personalities. Notably, shoals with more boldness variation were more likely to split during training trials and took longer to reach a collective decision. Thus cognitive tasks, such as learning and cue memorisation, may be exhibited collectively, but the ability to reach collective decisions is affected by the personality composition of the group. A likely outcome of the splitting of groups with very disparate personalities is the formation of groups with members more similar in their personality.
Highlights
Organised groups are characterised by cooperative and synchronised behaviour, which allows for better resource acquisition and risk avoidance (Pitcher and Parrish, 1993)
To examine whether collective processes of decision-making and learning are affected by the composition of groups, in terms of the individual boldness of their members, we studied the zebrafish Danio rerio
Given collective decisions took longer when splitting occurred than when not (Fig. 2D), we conclude that the splitting of groups with members more dissimilar in their boldness results in collective decisions taking longer to be reached
Summary
Organised groups are characterised by cooperative and synchronised behaviour, which allows for better resource acquisition and risk avoidance (Pitcher and Parrish, 1993). Collective behaviour varies depending on external and internal conditions, e.g. environmental risk levels and inter-group dynamics (Hoare et al, 2004; Sumpter, 2006). On some occasions, such as during foraging, this may require that information about current local conditions is disseminated between individuals within the group and presumably processed collectively by the group (Laland and Williams, 1997). Collective cognition may be utilised for various group functions, it is useful for adjusting group behaviour in spatial contexts such as food location or route choice (de Perera and Guilford, 1999; Conradt and Roper, 2005; Couzin et al, 2005).
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