Personality-dependent differences in problem-solving performance in a social context reflect foraging strategies

TY - JOUR

T1 - Personality-dependent differences in problem-solving performance in a social context reflect foraging strategies

AU - Zandberg, Lies

AU - Quinn, John L.

AU - Naguib, Marc

AU - van Oers, Kees

N1 - 6178, AnE; Data archiving: data archived in Dataverse

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Abstract Individuals develop innovative behaviours to solve foraging challenges in the face of changing environmental conditions. Little is known about how individuals differ in their tendency to solve problems and in their subsequent use of this solving behaviour in social contexts. Here we investigated whether individual variation in problem-solving performance could be explained by differences in the likelihood of solving the task, or if they reflect differences in foraging strategy. We tested this by studying the use of a novel foraging skill in groups of great tits (Parus major), consisting of three naive individuals with different personality, and one knowledgeable tutor. We presented them with multiple, identical foraging devices over eight trials. Though birds of different personality type did not differ in solving latency; fast and slow explorers showed a steeper increase over time in their solving rate, compared to intermediate explorers. Despite equal solving potential, personality influenced the subsequent use of the skill, as well as the pay-off received from solving. Thus, variation in the tendency to solve the task reflected differences in foraging strategy among individuals linked to their personality. These results emphasize the importance of considering the social context to fully understand the implications of learning novel skills.

AB - Abstract Individuals develop innovative behaviours to solve foraging challenges in the face of changing environmental conditions. Little is known about how individuals differ in their tendency to solve problems and in their subsequent use of this solving behaviour in social contexts. Here we investigated whether individual variation in problem-solving performance could be explained by differences in the likelihood of solving the task, or if they reflect differences in foraging strategy. We tested this by studying the use of a novel foraging skill in groups of great tits (Parus major), consisting of three naive individuals with different personality, and one knowledgeable tutor. We presented them with multiple, identical foraging devices over eight trials. Though birds of different personality type did not differ in solving latency; fast and slow explorers showed a steeper increase over time in their solving rate, compared to intermediate explorers. Despite equal solving potential, personality influenced the subsequent use of the skill, as well as the pay-off received from solving. Thus, variation in the tendency to solve the task reflected differences in foraging strategy among individuals linked to their personality. These results emphasize the importance of considering the social context to fully understand the implications of learning novel skills.

KW - Problem solving

KW - Exploratory behaviour

KW - Great tit

KW - Innovation

KW - Scrounging

KW - international

UR - https://doi.org/10411/GDT1EC

U2 - 10.1016/j.beproc.2016.09.007

DO - 10.1016/j.beproc.2016.09.007

M3 - Article

SN - 0376-6357

VL - 134

SP - 95

EP - 102

JO - Behavioural Processes

JF - Behavioural Processes

IS - January

ER -