Characterizing innovators: Ecological and individual predictors of problem-solving performance

Abstract

Behavioural innovation, the use of new behaviours or existing ones in novel contexts, can have important ecological and evolutionary consequences for animals. An understanding of these consequences would be incomplete without considering the traits that predispose certain individuals to exhibit innovative behaviour. Several individual and ecological variables are hypothesized to affect innovativeness, but empirical studies show mixed results. We examined the effects of dominance rank, exploratory personality, and urbanisation on the innovativeness of wild-caught black-capped chickadees using a survival analysis of their performance in two problem-solving tasks. Additionally, we provide one of the first investigations of the predictors of persistence in a problem-solving context. For lever pulling, we found a trend for dominants to outperform subordinates, particularly in rural birds, which did not align with predictions from the necessity drives innovation hypothesis. When examining possible explanations for this trend we found that older chickadees outperformed younger birds. This follow-up analysis also revealed a positive effect of exploratory personality on the lever-pulling performance of chickadees. Our results suggest that experience may foster innovation in certain circumstances, for instance via the application of previously-acquired information or skills to a novel problem. As we found different predictors for both tasks, this suggests that task characteristics influence the innovative propensity of individuals, and that their effects should be investigated experimentally.

Problem Solving in Animals: Proposal for an Ontogenetic Perspective

“…This could possibly improve problem solving abilities of juveniles despite their lack of experience at solving tasks. However, results are species-specific, as Indian mynas [ 173 ] and spotted hyenas [ 174 ] show no age-specific effects on problem solving in foraging tasks, while adult meerkats [ 27 ] and black-capped chickadees [ 175 ] were better innovators than juveniles in extractive foraging tasks.…”

Enhanced problem-solving ability as an adaptation to urban environments in house mice

“…In the past decade, a series of studies focusing on various bird species found general support for enhanced problem-solving abilities of populations in urban over more natural areas (e.g. [11][12][13][14]). The underlying mechanisms of problem-solving differences are poorly understood.…”

“…In addition, an animal's performance might be influenced by persistence (i.e. the number of solving attempts or time spent manipulating the task set-up) [14]. Furthermore, the inability to perform a motor action or the ability to stop a non-successful action could cause differences in problem-solving performance [17,18].…”

Do alternative reproductive tactics predict problem-solving performance in African striped mice?

“…This flexibility in ARTs is uncoupled from personality (Yuen et al 2015) and possibly also cognition, such a problem-solving. Problem-solving is not a fixed cognitive trait and can change via social learning (e.g., Aplin et al 2015) or because of environmental changes (e.g., Prasher et al 2019). Such potential intrinsic and extrinsic influences suggest changes in problem-solving within an individual's lifetime.…”