Abstract
According to recent studies on animal personalities, the level of behavioral plasticity, which can be viewed as the slope of the behavioral reaction norm, varies among individuals, populations, and species. Still, it is conceptually unclear how the interaction between environmental variation and variation in animal cognition affect the evolution of behavioral plasticity and expression of animal personalities. Here, we (1) use literature to review how environmental variation and individual variation in cognition explain population and individual level expression of behavioral plasticity and (2) draw together empirically yet nontested, conceptual framework to clarify how these factors affect the evolution and expression of individually consistent behavior in nature. The framework is based on simple principles: first, information acquisition requires cognition that is inherently costly to build and maintain. Second, individual differences in animal cognition affect the differences in behavioral flexibility, i.e. the variance around the mean of the behavioral reaction norm, which defines plasticity. Third, along the lines of the evolution of cognition, we predict that environments with moderate variation favor behavioral flexibility. This occurs since in those environments costs of cognition are covered by being able to recognize and use information effectively. Similarly, nonflexible, stereotypic behaviors may be favored in environments that are either invariable or highly variable, since in those environments cognition does not give any benefits to cover the costs or cognition is not able to keep up with environmental change, respectively. If behavioral plasticity develops in response to increasing environmental variability, plasticity should dominate in environments that are moderately variable, and expression of animal personalities and behavioral syndromes may differ between environments. We give suggestions how to test our hypothesis and propose improvements to current behavioral testing protocols in the field of animal personality.
Highlights
While the concept of animal personality has significantly improved our understanding about the evolution of individually consistent behavior (Kortet et al 2010; Sih et al 2012), it has simultaneously created a need to understand the plasticity of behavior (Dingemanse et al 2010, 2012a; Mathot et al 2012)
We have shortly reviewed literature on animal cognition to create a hypothesis on how the existence or expression of behavioral plasticity may depend on the interaction between environmental and individual characteristics
We pinpoint that differences in behavioral plasticity arise from (1) differences in costly cognition; and (2) the level of variability of the environment
Summary
While the concept of animal personality (i.e. consistent between-individual differences in time and between contexts) has significantly improved our understanding about the evolution of individually consistent behavior (Kortet et al 2010; Sih et al 2012), it has simultaneously created a need to understand the plasticity of behavior (Dingemanse et al 2010, 2012a; Mathot et al 2012). A behavioral reaction norm defines how the average level of any given personality trait (such as boldness or aggressiveness) can differ in time or across an ecological gradient, between contexts and between individuals We define behavioral plasticity as the individual’s average ability to respond to environmental stimulus across gradient (i.e. nonhorizontal reaction norm) (Fig. 1). Within a context or a situation animal shows behavioral flexibility (range of individual behaviors from which reaction norm is build) which can depend on the slope of the behavioral reaction norm (A)
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