Modulating Aggression Through Experience

Hsu, Yu-Wei; Earley, Ryan L.; Wolf, Larry L.

doi:10.1002/9780470996058.ch6

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 99 publications

(120 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, the average number of skin lesions incurred during the brief (up to 30 min) contest was comparable to the median number of skin lesions pigs accrued across a 24-h period of social interactions following regrouping. Contrary to the theory that species displaying frequent social interactions would retain information from past encounters to a lesser extent 13 , the effects of winning and losing appeared to persist for 3 weeks even in this highly social species. Since the test environment was only used for contests and was different from the home pen, the experience of winning or defeat may have been linked with these environmental cues, which supports evidence that context is important to winner and loser effects 58 .…”

Section: Effects Of Contest Outcome and Aggressivenesscontrasting

confidence: 95%

Winner–loser effects overrule aggressiveness during the early stages of contests between pigs

Oldham

Camerlink

Arnott

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Contest behaviour, and in particular the propensity to attack an unfamiliar conspecific, is influenced by an individual's aggressiveness, as well as by experience of winning and losing (so called 'winnerloser effects'). Individuals vary in aggressiveness and susceptibility to winner-loser effects but the relationship between these drivers of contest behaviour has been poorly investigated. Here we hypothesise that the winner-loser effect on initiation of agonistic behaviour (display, non-damaging aggression, biting and mutual fighting) is influenced by aggressiveness. Pigs (n = 255) were assayed for aggressiveness (tendency to attack in resident−intruder tests) and then experienced two dyadic contests (age 10 and 13 weeks). Agonistic behaviour, up to reciprocal fighting, in contest 2 was compared between individuals of different aggressiveness in the RI test and experiences of victory or defeat in contest 1. Winner-loser effects were more influential than aggressiveness in determining initiation of agonistic behaviour. After accruing more skin lesions in contest 1, individuals were less likely to engage in escalated aggression in contest 2. The interaction between aggressiveness and winner-loser experience did not influence contest behaviour. The results suggest that aggressiveness does not compromise learning from recent contest experience and that reducing aggressiveness is unlikely to affect how animals experience winning and losing. Across species, substantial variation in individuals' reaction to unfamiliar conspecifics has been observed 1,2. In resident−intruder tests, individuals are consistent in whether or not they attack an intruder across repeated tests 3,4. Accordingly, aggressiveness can be viewed as a personality trait and is shaped by the genotype and early experience 5-8. As well as inter-individual differences in aggressiveness, individuals modulate their own aggressive behaviour according to resource value 9 , estimation of own ability 10 , opponent characteristics 11 and internal conditions influencing their evaluation of these factors (for example hormonal status 6 or food deprivation 12). There is also variation in how animals modulate their behaviour following victory or defeat in contests 13 , so called winner-loser effects. Aggressive contests are costly and it is important that animals learn from previous contest outcomes, not only about the identity of animals against which they have previously fought and won or lost 14 , but to extrapolate from past experience to estimate whether they are likely to be successful in future contests. Evidence suggests that aggressive animals are inflexible in modulating their behavioural strategy 15,16 and we therefore hypothesise that highly aggressive animals are less likely to adapt their contest behaviour following victory or defeat than less aggressive animals. Winning a contest increases the likelihood of winning a subsequent contest, and defeated individuals are more likely to lose again 17. Even in hypothetical groups of equal resource holding pote...

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Section: Effects Of Contest Outcome and Aggressivenesscontrasting

confidence: 95%

Winner–loser effects overrule aggressiveness during the early stages of contests between pigs

Oldham

Camerlink

Arnott

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Peeke et al1969;Clotfelter & Kuperberg 2007), but these methodologies, while testing individuals in isolation, still have problems with feedback loops. In addition, the composition of the shoal in the home tank from which the males were drawn could have had a strong impact on male aggressive behaviour owing to prolonged winning and losing effects (Hsu et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The minimum separation between trials using the same individuals was 7 days. This approach helped minimize potential winner/loser effects (Hsu et al 2006). The experimental arena was furnished in a fashion similar to the home aquaria, including the provision of aquatic plants to provide refuge so fish could escape and hide from aggressors.…”

Section: Experiments 1: Hierarchy Establishmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality traits predict hierarchy rank in male rainbowfish social groups

2011

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Personality traits are becoming increasingly important in explaining adaptive individual differences in animal behaviour and probably represent a leading edge of the evolutionary process. Despite the newfound interest in animal personality among behavioural ecologists, fewstudies have investigated the link between personality traits and fitness measures. We examined this link using male rainbowfish, Melanotaenia duboulayi, as a model species and found that a range of personality traits (aggression, activity and boldness) covaried with a male's position in a hierarchy, which is directly related to reproductive success in this and many other species. Dominant fish were more aggressive, active, bold and also significantly larger than subordinate fish. Moreover, we found strong correlations between activity levels and boldness suggesting that selection may act on a suite of traits in concert (sensu behavioural syndromes). When taken together with previous research, our results suggest that the activityeboldness syndrome is likely to be domain specific. We suggest that multiple trait correlations may be generated by high levels of competition (e.g. sexual selection) in addition to predation pressure as identified by previous studies.

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“…Some part of the differences in the magnitude and permanence of experience effects between species and the asymmetrical winner and loser effects within species could result from differences in methodology (see Hsu et al 2006aHsu et al , 2006b for a more detailed discussion). These differences include the protocol for training animals with winning and losing experiences, the frequency and duration of experience training, the time interval between the completion of experience training and the subsequent contest and whether (and for how long) study animals were isolated before experience training.…”

Section: Winner and Loser Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aggressive Behaviour in Fish: Integrating Information about Contest Costs

Hsu

Earley

Wolf

2011

Fish Cognition and Behavior

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As the introductory chapter to the first edition of this book (Brown et al. 2006) noted, fish behaviour has long been viewed as stereotyped and not strongly influenced by context or experience. The recognition that experience and learning can influence fish behaviour coupled with observations of considerable variation in behaviour within and between individuals has led to an increasing awareness of the complexity of fish behaviour. Behavioural ecologists are interested in understanding the causes and effects of behavioural variation within individuals (e.g. over time), among individuals of a population and among populations. These causes and effects are related to the benefits and costs of the behaviour that influence the evolutionary success (fitness) of the individual.Over 40 years ago Tinbergen (1963) noted that behavioural variation could be examined from multiple perspectives. This variation could result, for example, from differences within and among individuals in genetics, age, size, sex, developmental history and morphological and physiological constraints. The variation could also be related to environmental situations encountered by an individual in the present or past and could result from the individual's past experiences. Behavioural variation presumably results from how each of these factors influences the benefits and costs of behaviour at a particular time and place. However, a more comprehensive understanding of behavioural variation will emerge only by integrating these different perspectives.Experiences could influence variables such as size, developmental history and physiological state that are predicted or observed to lead to behavioural differences. Experiences could also influence the individual's perception of its current environmental situation. For example, a fish that recently encountered a predator in a particular location may be less likely to engage in intense aggressive behaviour (Brick 1998(Brick , 1999 and spend more time scanning for potential predators than another fish at the same place that has never encountered a predator there.

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Modulating Aggression Through Experience

Cited by 9 publications

References 99 publications

Winner–loser effects overrule aggressiveness during the early stages of contests between pigs

Winner–loser effects overrule aggressiveness during the early stages of contests between pigs

Personality traits predict hierarchy rank in male rainbowfish social groups

Aggressive Behaviour in Fish: Integrating Information about Contest Costs

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