Learning from others: an invasive lizard uses social information from both conspecifics and heterospecifics

Damas-Moreira, Isabel; Oliveira, Daniel; Santos, Joana L.; Riley, Julia; Harris, D. James; Whiting, Martin J.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2018.0532

Cited by 32 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Shifts in behavior most likely follow after experience with a certain situation allowing the individual to learn an appropriate response. Animals might innovate solutions to problems by modifying existing behavior, come up with new behaviors, or learn socially from conspecifics or even native congeneric heterospecifics (Wright et al, 2010;Damas-Moreira et al, 2018). Cognitive ability can play an important role during the different stages of the invasion process, but which abilities increase invasion success within or across stages?…”

Section: Cognitive Abilities That Can Increase Invasion Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When no demonstrators were present or water was added instead of the food odor, observers did not change their behavior showing that their behavior was guided by that of the demonstrators irrespective of whether demonstrators were conspecifics or heterospecifics (Camacho-Cervantes et al, 2015). Furthermore, a recent study showed that invasive Italian wall lizards, Podarcis sicula, readily learn stimuli associated with a food reward (in an artificial foraging task using differently colored food wells) from both conspecifics and heterospecifics and made fewer errors when learning socially as opposed to individually (Damas-Moreira et al, 2018). Social learning has, however, limitations.…”

Section: Social Learning and The Spread Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

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Can Cognitive Ability Give Invasive Species the Means to Succeed? A Review of the Evidence

2020

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Invasive species are a global conservation problem that have an enormous economic cost. Understanding the attributes of invasive species and what makes them successful at colonizing and flourishing in novel environments is therefore essential for preventing and ameliorating their negative impact. Learning ability and behavioral flexibility-the ability to adjust behavior flexibly when conditions change including to learn to solve novel problems or existing problems in a novel way, are thought to play a key role during invasions although cognitive ability is rarely considered in studies of invasive species. We begin by reviewing the evidence that flexible learning and problem solving can influence invasion success in both invertebrates and vertebrates. We also review brain size as an index of cognitive ability with respect to invasion success. We then focus on the specific attributes of cognition that are likely to be important for species entering novel environments as they learn the location of resources (e.g., food, shelter), and as they encounter and interact with conspecifics, heterospecifics, and potential predators. We suggest that enhanced spatial learning ability in conjunction with behavioral flexibility are likely to be adaptive. Furthermore, good memory retention and the ability to learn from others (both conspecifics and heterospecifics) are beneficial. Finally, we suggest future directions for studying the link between cognition, fitness, and invasion success. Studies of closely related "invasive" and "non-invasive" species, as well as invasive populations and their source, should provide important baseline information about the potential role of cognitive ability in determining invasion success. We also advocate an experimental approach. In particular, we borrow methods from experimental evolutionary ecology. We suggest that experimental studies in which potential invasive species can be assayed for behavior and their cognitive ability measured prior to population-level release on small islands will help inform us about the potential role of cognitive ability in determining the fitness of invasive species. The idea that cognitive ability may determine invasion success is only now starting to gain traction. This is a rich field worthy of further study that will help us better understand what makes a successful invasive species.

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Section: Cognitive Abilities That Can Increase Invasion Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Social Learning and The Spread Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Can Cognitive Ability Give Invasive Species the Means to Succeed? A Review of the Evidence

2020

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“…Some individuals (n = 18) either did not attempt to feed on both feeders in AM or, more commonly, PM during training, or did not make any foraging attempts during a final test session and were removed from further analyses. Following previous learning studies [27][28][29], we also established a training criterion. As we are interested in whether time-dependent memories are formed and can therefore guide behaviour in the absence of the reward, we identified individuals that correctly adjust their behaviour in AM and PM sessions during training with reinforced feeders.…”

Section: (B) Training Criterionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heliconiini butterflies can learn time-dependent reward associations

et al. 2020

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For many pollinators, flowers provide predictable temporal schedules of resource availability, meaning an ability to learn time-dependent information could be widely beneficial. However, this ability has only been demonstrated in a handful of species. Observations of Heliconius butterflies suggest that they may have an ability to form time-dependent foraging preferences. Heliconius are unique among butterflies in actively collecting pollen, a dietary behaviour linked to spatio-temporally faithful ‘trap-line' foraging. Time dependency of foraging preferences is hypothesized to allow Heliconius to exploit temporal predictability in alternative pollen resources. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence in support of this hypothesis, demonstrating that Heliconius hecale can learn opposing colour preferences in two time periods. This shift in preference is robust to the order of presentation, suggesting that preference is tied to the time of day and not due to ordinal or interval learning. However, this ability is not limited to Heliconius , as previously hypothesized, but also present in a related genus of non-pollen feeding butterflies. This demonstrates time learning likely pre-dates the origin of pollen feeding and may be prevalent across butterflies with less specialized foraging behaviours.

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“…Moreover, spatial learning proficiency did not predict lid opening ability in water skinks (Qi et al, 2018). Finally, Italian wall lizards (Podarcis sicula) and a closely related species P. bocagei learnt the same lid-opening technique (Damas-Moreira et al, 2018).…”

Section: Lizardsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Eight different studies have used training procedures to teach lizards to remove lids from wells for a reward and although training preceded the tasks, these are examples of reptile species solving novel problems (Clark et al, 2014;Damas-Moreira et al, 2018;Leal, & Powell, 2012;Noble et al, 2014;Powell, 2012;Qi et al, 2018;Riley et al, 2018;. Only two studies attempted to test a reptile on a puzzle box task.…”

Section: Lizardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-avian reptile learning 40 years on: advances and promising new directions

Szabo¹,

Noble²,

Whiting³

2019

Preprint

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Recently, there has been a surge in cognition research in non-avian reptiles. As a diverse group of animals, non-avian reptiles (turtles, the tuatara, crocodilians, and squamates - lizards, snakes and amphisbaenids) have shown to be good model systems for answering questions related to cognitive ecology; from the role of the environment in brain, behaviour and learning to how social and life-history factors correlate with learning ability. Furthermore, given their variable social structure and degree of sociality, reptiles have been pivotal in demonstrating that group living is unnecessary for animals to learn effectively from conspecifics. Past research has undoubtedly demonstrated that non-avian reptiles are capable of more than just instinctive reactions and basic cognition. Despite their ability to provide answers to fundamental questions in cognitive ecology and a growing literature base, there have been no systematic syntheses of research in this group. Here, we systematically, and comprehensively review studies on reptile learning. We identify 83 new studies investigating learning in reptiles not included in previous reviews on the same topic – affording a unique opportunity to provide a more in-depth synthesis of existing work, its taxonomic distribution, the types of cognitive domains tested and methodology that has been used. Our review therefore provides an up-to-date knowledge overview by tying the collected evidence together under eight cognitive umbrella terms: (1) aversion learning, (2) spatial cognition, (3) learning during foraging, (4) numerical competency, (5) learning flexibility, (6) social learning and (7) memory. Importantly, we identify knowledge gaps and propose themes which offer important future research opportunities including how cognitive ability might influence fitness and survival, testing cognition in an ecologically relevant setup, testing invasive compared to non-invasive species, and social learning in social reptiles. Overall, we believe that, for the field to move forward, it will be immensely important to build upon the descriptive approach (testing if a species can learn a task) with experimental studies elucidating causal reasons for cognitive variation between and within species. With the appropriate methodology, this still young field of research should advance greatly in the coming years and represents a significant opportunity for testing general questions in cognitive ecology and beyond.

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Learning from others: an invasive lizard uses social information from both conspecifics and heterospecifics

Cited by 32 publications

References 17 publications

Can Cognitive Ability Give Invasive Species the Means to Succeed? A Review of the Evidence

Can Cognitive Ability Give Invasive Species the Means to Succeed? A Review of the Evidence

Heliconiini butterflies can learn time-dependent reward associations

Non-avian reptile learning 40 years on: advances and promising new directions

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