Learning capabilities enhanced in harsh environments: A common garden approach

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 277, Issue 1697, 2010, Pages 3187-3193

  Roth, Timothy C ^a   LaDage, Lara D ^a   Pravosudov, Vladimir V ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA   (United States)

Author keywords

Behavioural flexibility; Environmental harshness; Learning; Natural selection; Neophobia; Problem solving

Indexed keywords

COGNITION; DESIGN; ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS; FUNCTIONAL MORPHOLOGY; HABITAT TYPE; HERITABILITY; LEARNING; LIFE HISTORY TRAIT; NATURAL SELECTION; PASSERINE; PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE; POPULATION STRUCTURE;

AVES; PARUS ATRICAPILLUS;

EID: 77956935936     PISSN: 09628452     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0630     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (34)

1. Biernaskie, J. M., Walker, S. C. & Gegear, R. J. 2009 Bumblebees learn to forage like Bayesians. Am. Nat. 174, 413-423. (doi:10.1086/603629)
2. Burns, L. H., Annett, L., Kelley, A. E., Everitt, B. J. & Robbins, T. W. 1996 Effects of lesions to amygdale, ventral subiculum, medial prefrontal cortex, and nucleus accumbens on the reaction to novelty: implication for limbic-striatal interactions. Behav. Neurosci. 110, 60-73. (doi:10.1037/0735- 7044.110.1.60) (Pubitemid 26068796)
3. Carlier, P. & Lefebvre, L. 1996 Differences in individual learning between group-foraging and territorial Zenaida doves. Behaviour 133, 1197-1207. (doi:10.1163/ 156853996X00369) (Pubitemid 126493354)
4. Chin, E. H., Love, O. P., Verspoor, J. J., Williams, T. C., Rowley, K. & Burness, G. 2009 Juveniles exposed to embryonic corticosterone have enhanced flight performance. Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 499-505. (doi:10.1098/rspb. 2008.1294)
5. Dukas, R. 1998 Evolutionary ecology of learning. In Cognitive ecology (ed. R. Dukas), pp. 129-174. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
6. Echeverria, A. I. & Vassallo, A. I. 2008 Novelty responses in a bird assemblage inhabiting an urban area. Ethology 114, 616-624. (doi:10.1111/j.1439- 0310.2008.01512.x) (Pubitemid 351692931)
7. Greenberg, G. R. 1983 The role of neophobia in determining the degree of foraging specialization in some migrant warblers. Am. Nat. 122, 444-453. (doi:10. 1086/284148) (Pubitemid 14275920)
8. Greenberg, G. R. 1984 Neophobia in the foraging site selection of a neotropical migrant bird-an experimental study. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 81, 3778-3780. (doi:10.1073/ pnas.81.12.3778)
9. Greenberg, G. R. 1990 Feeding neophobia and ecological plasticity-a test of the hypothesis with captive sparrows. Anim. Behav. 39, 375-379. (doi:10.1016/S0003-3472(05)80884-X)
10. Harrap, S. & Quinn, D. 1995 Chickadees, tits, and treecreepers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
11. Hills, T. T. 2006 Animal foraging and the evolution of goal-directed cognition. Cogn. Sci. 30, 3-41.
12. Keagy, J., Savard, J.-F. & Borgia, G. 2009 Male satin bower-bird problem-solving ability predicts mating success. Anim. Behav. 78, 809-817. (doi:10.1016/j.anbehav. 2009.07.011)
13. Krebs, J. R., Sherry, D. F., Healy, S. D., Perry, V. H. & Vaccarino, A. L. 1989 Hippocampal specialization of food-storing birds. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 86, 1388-1392. (doi:10.1073/pnas.86.4.1388) (Pubitemid 19061551)
14. Lefebvre, L., Whittle, P., Lascaris, E. & Finkelstein, A. 1997 Feeding innovations and forebrain size in birds. Anim. Behav. 53, 549-560. (doi:10.1006/anbe.1996.0330) (Pubitemid 27185838)
15. Lefebvre, L., Reader, S. M. & Sol, D. 2004 Brains, innovations and evolution in birds and primates. Brain Behav. Evol. 63, 233-246. (doi:10.1159/000076784) (Pubitemid 38490190)
16. Liker, A. & Bokony, V. 2009 Larger groups are more successful in innovative problem solving in house sparrows. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 7893-7898. (doi:10.1073/pnas. 0900042106)
17. Macphail, E. M. 1996 Cognitive function in mammals: the evolutionary perspective. Cogn. Brain Res. 3, 279-290. (doi:10.1016/0926-6410(96)00013-4) (Pubitemid 26198359)
18. Martin, L. B. & Fitzgerald, L. A. 2005 A taste for novelty in invading house sparrows Passer domesticus. Behav. Ecol. 16, 702-707. (doi:10.1093/beheco/ari044) (Pubitemid 41373588)
19. McLean, A. N. 2001 Cognitive abilities-the result of selective pressures on food acquisition? Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 71, 241-258. (doi:10.1016/S0168- 1591(00)00181-7) (Pubitemid 32219040)
20. Pravosudov, V. V. & Clayton, N. S. 2002 A test of the adaptive specialization hypothesis: population differences in caching, memory, and the hippocampus in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla). Behav. Neurosci. 116, 515-522. (doi:10.1037/0735-7044.116.4.515)
21. Pravosudov, V. V. & Grubb, T. C. 1997 Management of fat reserves and food caches in tufted titmice (Parus bicolor) in relation to unpredictable food supply. Behav. Ecol. 8, 332-339. (doi:10.1093/beheco/8.3.332)
22. Pravosudov, V. V. & Lucas, J. R. 2001 A dynamic model of short-term energy management in small food-caching and non-caching birds. Behav. Ecol. 12, 207-218. (doi:10.1093/beheco/12.2.207)
23. Price, T. D., Quarnstrom, A. & Irwin, D. E. 2003 The role of phenotypic plasticity in driving genetic evolution. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 270, 1433-1440. (doi:10.1098/ rspb.2003.2372)
24. Reader, S. M. 2003 Innovation and social learning: individual variation and brain evolution. Anim. Biol. 53, 147-158. (doi:10.1163/157075603769700340) (Pubitemid 38242119)
25. Rice, W. R. & Gaines, S. D. 1994 The ordered-heterogeneity family of tests. Biometrics 50, 746-752. (doi:10.2307/ 2532788) (Pubitemid 24320822)
26. Roth, T. C. & Pravosudov, V. V. 2009 Hippocampal volume and neuron numbers increase along a gradient of environmental harshness: a large-scale comparison. Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 401-405. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1184)
27. Roth, T. C., Brodin, A., Smulders, T. V., LaDage, L. D. & Pravosudov, V. V. 2010 Is bigger always better? A critical appraisal of the use of volumetric analysis in the study of the hippocampus. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365, 915-931. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0208)
28. Sherry, D. F., Vaccarino, A. L., Buckenham, K. & Herz, R. S. 1989 The hippocampal complex of food-storing birds. Brain Behav. Evol. 34, 308-317. (doi:10.1159/ 000116516)
29. Shettleworth, S. J. 1998 Cognition, evolution, and behaviour. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
30. Shettleworth, S. J. 2009 The evolution of comparative cognition: is the snark still a boojum? Behav. Process. 80, 210-217. (doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2008. 09.001)
31. Sol, D., Timmermans, S. & Lefebvre, L. 2002 Behavioural flexibility and invasion success in birds. Anim. Behav. 63, 495-502. (doi:10.1006/anbe.2001. 1953)
32. Sol, D., Duncan, R.P., Blackburn, T.M., Cassey, P. & Lefebvre, L. 2005a Big brains, enhanced cognition, and response of birds to novel environments. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 5460-5465. (doi:10.1073/pnas. 0408145102) (Pubitemid 40530280)
33. Sol, D., Stirling, D. G. & Lefebvre, L. 2005b Behavioral drive or behavioral inhibition in evolution: subspecific diversification in holarctic passerines. Evolution 59, 2677-2699.
34. Webster, S. J. & Lefebvre, L. 2001 Problem solving and neo-phobia in a columbiform-passeriform assemblage in Barbados. Anim. Behav. 62, 23-32. (doi:10.1006/anbe. 2000.1725)