Cleaner fish and other wrasse match primates in their ability to delay gratification

Aellen, Mélisande; Dufour, Valérie; Bshary, Redouan

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.04.002

Cited by 15 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 68 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is a small fish, up to 15 cm in total length (TL), of protogynous hermaphrodite, changing sex from female to male, and they have harem polygynous mating system [ 50 , 51 ]. This fish is a model species for the study of fish cognition [ 52 – 54 ], and many aspects of fish social cognitive capacities have been reported from this fish, for example, the strategic use of tactical deception [ 55 ], transitive inference [ 56 ], a strong ability to delay gratification [ 57 ], a base for theory of mind [ 43 ], and MSR [ 25 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Further evidence for the capacity of mirror self-recognition in cleaner fish and the significance of ecologically relevant marks

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An animal that tries to remove a mark from its body that is only visible when looking into a mirror displays the capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR), which has been interpreted as evidence for self-awareness. Conservative interpretations of existing data conclude that convincing evidence for MSR is currently restricted to great apes. Here, we address proposed shortcomings of a previous study on MSR in the cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus, by varying preexposure to mirrors and by marking individuals with different colors. We found that (1) 14/14 new individuals scraped their throat when a brown mark had been provisioned, but only in the presence of a mirror; (2) blue and green color marks did not elicit scraping; (3) intentionally injecting the mark deeper beneath the skin reliably elicited spontaneous scraping in the absence of a mirror; (4) mirror-naive individuals injected with a brown mark scraped their throat with lower probability and/or lower frequency compared to mirror-experienced individuals; (5) in contrast to the mirror images, seeing another fish with the same marking did not induce throat scraping; and (6) moving the mirror to another location did not elicit renewed aggression in mirror-experienced individuals. Taken together, these results increase our confidence that cleaner fish indeed pass the mark test, although only if it is presented in ecologically relevant contexts. Therefore, we reiterate the conclusion of the previous study that either self-awareness in animals or the validity of the mirror test needs to be revised.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Further evidence for the capacity of mirror self-recognition in cleaner fish and the significance of ecologically relevant marks

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The delay-of-gratification test has by now been used on a variety of vertebrate species [76][77][78] with varying results. Dogs (with their owners) as well as some fishes and largebrained monkeys (macaques and capuchins) are all able to wait for extended periods to obtain larger rewards; cuttlefish have also been reported to wait up to 2 min [79].…”

Section: (B) Delay Of Gratificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The psychological foundations of reputation-based cooperation

Manrique

Zeidler

Roberts

et al. 2021

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humans care about having a positive reputation, which may prompt them to help in scenarios where the return benefits are not obvious. Various game-theoretical models support the hypothesis that concern for reputation may stabilize cooperation beyond kin, pairs or small groups. However, such models are not explicit about the underlying psychological mechanisms that support reputation-based cooperation. These models therefore cannot account for the apparent rarity of reputation-based cooperation in other species. Here, we identify the cognitive mechanisms that may support reputation-based cooperation in the absence of language. We argue that a large working memory enhances the ability to delay gratification, to understand others' mental states (which allows for perspective-taking and attribution of intentions) and to create and follow norms, which are key building blocks for increasingly complex reputation-based cooperation. We review the existing evidence for the appearance of these processes during human ontogeny as well as their presence in non-human apes and other vertebrates. Based on this review, we predict that most non-human species are cognitively constrained to show only simple forms of reputation-based cooperation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

show abstract

“…In both experiments, a number of horses successfully waited for 60 s, while, for example, dogs waited for up to 15 min (Leonardi et al, 2012;Brucks et al, 2017b), pigs up to 20 s (Zebunke et al, 2018), chicken up to 7 s (Abeyesinghe et al, 2005). Other non-domesticated species, however, tolerated much higher delay times [e.g., long-tailed macaques: 21 min (Pelé et al, 2010), cleaner wrasse: 480 s (Aellen et al, 2021), ravens: 640 s (Hillemann et al, 2014), and cuttlefish: 130 s (Schnell et al, 2021)]. Interestingly, horses were more successful in the quantity condition compared to the quality condition.…”

Section: Horses' Self-control Abilities In a Comparative Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses wait for more and better rewards in a delay of gratification paradigm

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Self-control, defined as the ability to forgo immediate satisfaction in favor of better pay-offs in the future, has been extensively studied, revealing enormous variation between and within species. Horses are interesting in this regard because as a grazing species they are expected to show low self-control whereas its social complexity might be linked to high self-control abilities. Additionally, self-control may be a key factor in training and/or coping with potentially stressful husbandry conditions. We assessed horses’ self-control abilities in a simplified delay of gratification test that can be easily implemented in a farm setting. In Experiment 1, we gave horses (N = 52) the choice between an immediately available low-quality reward and a delayed high-quality reward that could only be obtained if the horse refrained from consuming the immediate reward. Different experimenters (N = 30) that underwent prior training in the procedures, tested horses in two test phases either with their eyes visible or invisible (sunglasses). Twenty horses waited up to the maximum delay stage of 60 s while all horses performed worse in the second test phase. In Experiment 2, we improved the test procedure (i.e., one experimenter, refined criterion for success), and tested 30 additional horses in a quality and quantity condition (one reward vs. delayed bigger reward). Two horses successfully waited for 60 s (quality: N = 1, quantity: N = 1). Horses tolerated higher delays, if they were first tested in the quantity condition. Furthermore, horses that were fed hay ad libitum, instead of in a restricted manner, reached higher delays. Coping behaviors (e.g., looking away, head movements, pawing, and increasing distance to reward) facilitated waiting success and horses were able to anticipate the upcoming delay duration as indicated by non-random distributions of giving-up times. We found no correlations between owner-assessed traits (e.g., trainability and patience) and individual performance in the test. These results suggest that horses are able to exert self-control in a delay of gratification paradigm similar to other domesticated species. Our simplified paradigm could be used to gather large scale data, e.g., to investigate the role of self-control in trainability or success in equestrian sports.

show abstract

Cleaner fish and other wrasse match primates in their ability to delay gratification

Cited by 15 publications

References 68 publications

Further evidence for the capacity of mirror self-recognition in cleaner fish and the significance of ecologically relevant marks

Further evidence for the capacity of mirror self-recognition in cleaner fish and the significance of ecologically relevant marks

The psychological foundations of reputation-based cooperation

Horses wait for more and better rewards in a delay of gratification paradigm

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About