Linking ecology and cognition: does ecological specialisation predict cognitive test performance?

Johanna Henke-Von Der Malsburg,Claudia Fichtel,Peter M Kappeler

doi:10.1007/s00265-020-02923-z

Abstract

Variation in cognitive abilities is thought to be linked to variation in brain size, which varies across species with either social factors (Social Intelligence Hypothesis) or ecological challenges (Ecological Intelligence Hypothesis). However, the nature of the ecological processes invoked by the Ecological Intelligence Hypothesis, like adaptations to certain habitat characteristics or dietary requirements, remains relatively poorly known. Here, we review comparative studies that experimentally investigated interspecific variation in cognitive performance in relation to a species’ degree of ecological specialisation. Overall, the relevant literature was biased towards studies of mammals and birds as well as studies focusing on ecological challenges related to diet. We separated ecological challenges into those related to searching for food, accessing a food item and memorising food locations. We found interspecific variation in cognitive performance that can be explained by adaptations to different foraging styles. Species-specific adaptations to certain ecological conditions, like food patch distribution, characteristics of food items or seasonality also broadly predicted variation in cognitive abilities. A species’ innovative problem-solving and spatial processing ability, for example, could be explained by its use of specific foraging techniques or search strategies, respectively. Further, habitat generalists were more likely to outperform habitat specialists. Hence, we found evidence that ecological adaptations and cognitive performance are linked and that the classification concept of ecological specialisation can explain variation in cognitive performance only with regard to habitat, but not dietary specialisation.

Highlights

Cognition can be defined as the ability to perceive, memorise and process information from an individual’s social as well as ecological environment (Shettleworth 2009), and variation in this ability is thought to be positively correlatedCommunicated by F
We explore the question whether ecological adaptations can explain interspecific variation in cognitive abilities by first briefly summarising hypotheses about the evolution of cognitive abilities addressing potential links between cognition and brain size and sociality, as well as ecology, respectively
We provide a summary of comparative studies relating interspecific variation in cognitive performance with ecology, the degree of ecological specialisation

Summary

Introduction

Cognition can be defined as the ability to perceive, memorise and process information from an individual’s social as well as ecological environment (Shettleworth 2009), and variation in this ability is thought to be positively correlated. Empirical comparisons of cognitive performance between generalists and specialists have either investigated effective habitat exploration in, for instance, spatial memory tasks (Pleskacheva et al 2000; Haupt et al 2010), or specific foraging abilities like innovative propensities (Day et al 2003; Overington et al 2009; Overington et al 2011; Griffin and Diquelou 2015; Henke-von der Malsburg and Fichtel 2018), associative learning (Hoedjes et al 2012) or behavioural flexibility (Day et al 1999a), using a variety of problem-solving experiments, including food extraction tasks, visual or olfactory discriminations or reversal learning tasks. Since the available brain size measures differed between these relatively few studies, the observed lack of an effect of brain size on cognitive performance might reflect this methodological shortcoming

Discussion

Findings

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