Order effects in transitive inference: does the presentation order of social information affect transitive inference in social animals?

Abstract

Transitive inference (TI) is the ability to infer social relationships between individuals (e.g., if A < B and B < C, then A < C), and has been documented in a variety of vertebrates. Many studies of TI use the task of inferring social dominance, where a subject animal A first directly interacts with B (e.g., A subordinate to B: A < B), and then indirectly observes the interaction of B and an unknown C (B < C), using both direct and indirect information to infer its own relationship with C (i.e., A < C). However, order effects are known to influence learning, especially in complex scenarios, and we have little understanding of the effects of presentation order in transitive inference. Here we show that the cichlid Julidochromis transcriptus can use TI to correctly assess social relationships when information is presented in the order opposite to that most commonly employed in studies of TI. We find that focal individuals (A) can transitively infer their relationships with an unknown individual (C) when initially given indirect experience (i.e., eavesdropping that B < C) and then given direct experience (A < B). We conclude that J. transcriptus can infer social relationships when experiencing first indirect and then direct social information. We suggest that in this and many other species, transitive inference may occur in either presentation order, and future studies of TI should account for order effects of social information.

The coevolution of transitive inference and memory capacity in the hawk–dove game

“…In other words, transitive inference turns out to be an easy strategy for players to survive with under hawk-dove type of situations when a cost of accurate information is high and memory capacity is limited. This may sound counter-intuitive because transitive inference seems to require highly intelligent ability due to the complicated mechanism but is consistent with the fact that transitive inference is observed in a wide range of animals including fish (Allen, 2006;Bond et al, 2004;Grosenick et al, 2007;Hotta et al, 2015a;Vasconcelos, 2008;White and Gowan, 2013). When we put greater emphasis on social hierarchy formation part of transitive inference than accurate estimation, we can understand why "transitive inference" is widely observed in animals.…”

Transitive inference in cleaner wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus)

“…A>B>C>D>E). Others also tested in another African cichlid fish, Julidochromis transcriptus , and Brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis , by using similar procedure [ 22 – 24 ]. These studies revealed TI ability in fish but also conducted with the implicit limitation that TI in fish might be a specialized form of cognition to social context.…”

“…Since the pioneering study on squirrel monkeys [2], researchers have conducted TI tasks among chimpanzees [10], rhesus monkeys [11], ring-tailed lemurs, mongoose lemurs [12], brown lemurs, black lemurs [13], rats [14], pigeons [6,9], hooded crows [4], jackdaws [3], pinyon jays, western scrub jays [15], Clark's nutcrackers, azure-winged magpies [16], graylag geese [17], domestic chicks [18], and paper wasps [19]. It was also demonstrated that pinyon jays, two African cichlid fish and brook trout used TI to assess dominance rank based on observed social interactions in a controlled laboratory setting [20][21][22][23][24]; however, there is no study to test TI task in fish other than social context.…”

The use of multiple sources of social information in contest behavior: testing the social cognitive abilities of a cichlid fish

“…To predict the social status of strangers using transitive inference, it is necessary to recognize the individuals and recall their social status (Hsu et al, 2006(Hsu et al, , 2011Grosenick et al, 2007). Although studies of fish memory are even more scarce than those on recognition, there is evidence that fish can remember social information for a considerable time, for example when making mate choice decisions (e.g., Millinski et al, 1990;Dugatkin and Godin, 1993;Griffiths and Magurran, 1997a,b;Dugatkin, 2000;Tebbich et al, 2002), and integrate it with other information in future social contexts (Dugatkin, 2000;Dugatkin and Earley, 2004;Frost et al, 2007;Bshary, 2011;Witte and Nobel, 2011;Jordan and Brooks, 2012;Hotta et al, 2015). These studies suggest that advanced cognitive abilities such as transitive inference may occur across fish taxa.…”