Population differences in spatial learning in three–spined sticklebacks

Girvan, Joanna R.; Braithwaite, Valerie

doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0378

Cited by 104 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…Blue and yellow 'L-shaped' walls were placed in the back corners of each test tank to create two chambers, each with a single entrance (see the electronic supplementary material). Because we were interested in assessing learning rather than colour per se, the blue chamber always contained the food reward (bloodworm-filled Petri dish) [14]. We alternated the tank side with the blue chamber between trials.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maternal predator-exposure has lifelong consequences for offspring learning in threespined sticklebacks

2012

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Learning is an important form of phenotypic plasticity that allows organisms to adjust their behaviour to the environment. An individual's learning performance can be affected by its mother's environment. For example, mothers exposed to stressors, such as restraint and forced swimming, often produce offspring with impaired learning performance. However, it is unclear whether there are maternal effects on offspring learning when mothers are exposed to ecologically relevant stressors, such as predation risk. Here, we examined whether maternal predator-exposure affects adult offsprings' learning of a discrimination task in threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Mothers were either repeatedly chased by a model predator (predator-exposed) or not (unexposed) while producing eggs. Performance of adult offspring from predator-exposed and unexposed mothers was assessed in a discrimination task that paired a particular coloured chamber with a food reward. Following training, all offspring learned the colour-association, but offspring of predator-exposed mothers located the food reward more slowly than offspring of unexposed mothers. This pattern was not driven by initial differences in exploratory behaviour. These results demonstrate that an ecologically relevant stressor (predation risk) can induce maternal effects on offspring learning, and perhaps behavioural plasticity more generally, that last into adulthood.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used a discrimination learning protocol known to be effective in stickleback [14]. Blue and yellow 'L-shaped' walls were placed in the back corners of each test tank to create two chambers, each with a single entrance (see the electronic supplementary material).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal predator-exposure has lifelong consequences for offspring learning in threespined sticklebacks

2012

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“…Feeders consisted of columns (5 cm Â 5 cm Â 35 cm high) with opaque sides and a transparent front (van Bergen et al 2004). To facilitate learning, one feeder was coloured blue and the other yellow (Girvan & Braithwaite 1998), although which colour of feeder was designated 'rich' or 'poor' (see below) was balanced within experimental groups. A pilot experiment confirmed that fish showed no prior preference for either colour of feeder (binomial test: n ¼ 20, p ¼ 0.82).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conformist learning in nine-spined sticklebacks' foraging decisions

2010

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Theoretical analyses have reported that in most circumstances where natural selection favours reliance on social learning, conformity (positive frequency-dependent social learning) is also favoured. These findings suggest that much animal social learning should involve a copythe-majority strategy, yet there is currently surprisingly little evidence for conformist learning among animals. Here, we investigate this possibility in the nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius) by manipulating the number of demonstrator fish at two feeders, one rich and one poor, during a demonstration phase and evaluating how this affects the likelihood that the focal fish copy the demonstrators' apparent choices. As predicted, we observed a significantly increased level of copying with increasing numbers of demonstrators at the richer of the two feeders, with copying increasing disproportionately, rather than linearly, with the proportion of demonstrators at the rich foraging patch. Control conditions with non-feeding demonstrators showed that this was not simply the result of a preference for shoaling with larger groups, implying that nine-spined sticklebacks copy in a conformist manner.

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“…More generally, we 337 suggest that the use of learning speed as a measure of cognitive ability without consideration of the 338 types of strategies animals might employ given their past experiences and the conditions at test might 339 lead to erroneous conclusions (Girvan and Braithwaite 1998;Chittka et al 2009;Ducatez et al 2014). 340…”

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confidence: 93%

Adjusting foraging strategies: a comparison of rural and urban common mynas (Acridotheres tristis)

et al. 2016

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Establishment in urbanized environments is associated with changes in physiology, behaviour, and problem solving. We compared the speed of learning in urban and rural female common mynas, Acridotheres tristis, using a standard visual discrimination task followed by a reversal learning phase. We also examined how quickly each bird progressed through different stages of learning, including sampling and acquisition within both initial and reversal learning, and persistence following reversal. Based on their reliance on very different food resources, we expected urban mynas to learn and reversal learn more quickly but to sample new contingencies for proportionately longer before learning them. When quantified from first presentation to criterion achievement, urban mynas took more 20-trial blocks to learn the initial discrimination, as well as the reversed contingency, than rural mynas. More detailed analyses at the level of stage revealed that this was because urban mynas explored the novel cue-outcome contingencies for longer and, despite transitioning faster through subsequent acquisition, remained overall slower than rural females. Our findings draw attention to fine adjustments in learning strategies in response to urbanization and caution against interpreting the speed to learn a task as a reflection of cognitive ability.

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Population differences in spatial learning in three–spined sticklebacks

Cited by 104 publications

References 16 publications

Maternal predator-exposure has lifelong consequences for offspring learning in threespined sticklebacks

Maternal predator-exposure has lifelong consequences for offspring learning in threespined sticklebacks

Conformist learning in nine-spined sticklebacks' foraging decisions

Adjusting foraging strategies: a comparison of rural and urban common mynas (Acridotheres tristis)

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