Rational choice of social group size in mosquitofish

Reding, Luke; Cummings, Molly E.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2018.0693

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Studies in another fish, the green swordtail, showed no evidence of a competitive decoy effect ( 92 ). Finally, a study of mosquito fish that was based on preference of group size, rather than characteristics of males per se, also failed to show such an effect ( 93 ).…”

Section: Cognition and Thinking About Mate Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Ryan

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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One hundred fifty years ago Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, in which he presented his theory of sexual selection with its emphasis on sexual beauty. However, it was not until 50 y ago that there was a renewed interest in Darwin’s theory in general, and specifically the potency of mate choice. Darwin suggested that in many cases female preferences for elaborately ornamented males derived from a female’s taste for the beautiful, the notion that females were attracted to sexual beauty for its own sake. Initially, female mate choice attracted the interest of behavioral ecologists focusing on the fitness advantages accrued through mate choice. Subsequent studies focused on sensory ecology and signal design, often showing how sensory end organs influenced the types of traits females found attractive. Eventually, investigations of neural circuits, neurogenetics, and neurochemistry uncovered a more complete scaffolding underlying sexual attraction. More recently, research inspired by human studies in psychophysics, behavioral economics, and neuroaesthetics have provided some notion of its higher-order mechanisms. In this paper, I review progress in our understanding of Darwin’s conjecture of “a taste for the beautiful” by considering research from these diverse fields that have conspired to provide unparalleled insight into the chooser’s mate choices.

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Section: Cognition and Thinking About Mate Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Ryan

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The intrinsic flexibility of energy metabolism may play an important role in behavioral adaptation to the social environment, although we cannot provide strong evidence due to small sample sizes. It is interesting to note that some animals can rationally choose their social groups (Krause & Ruxton, 2002 ; Reding & Cummings, 2019 ). Therefore, individuals that differ in sociability may increase their fitness by choosing between different social groups to match their state to the group behaviors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the match between individual and group behavior matter in shoaling sticklebacks?

Kim

Álvarez-Quintero

Metcalfe

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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In animals living in groups, the social environment is fundamental to shaping the behaviors and life histories of an individual. A mismatch between individual and group behavior patterns may have disadvantages if the individual is incapable of flexibly changing its state in response to the social environment that influences its energy gain and expenditure. We used different social groups of juvenile three‐spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) with experimentally manipulated compositions of individual sociability to study the feedback between individual and group behaviors and to test how the social environment shapes behavior, metabolic rate, and growth. Experimentally created unsociable groups, containing a high proportion of less sociable fish, showed bolder collective behaviors during feeding than did corresponding sociable groups. Fish within groups where the majority of members had a level of sociability similar to their own gained more mass than did those within mismatched groups. Less sociable individuals within sociable groups tended to have a relatively low mass but a high standard metabolic rate. A mismatch between the sociability of an individual and that of the majority of the group in which it is living confers a growth disadvantage probably due to the expression of nonadaptive behaviors that increase energetic costs.

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“…Females from poeciliid species with high levels of sexual coercion like Gambusia employ shoaling as a strategy to reduce male harassment[27], and Gambusia females shoal more than males [22,36]. Female G. affinis have been shown to choose shoal group size in a rational manner [37]; and the benefit for selecting larger shoals can lead to both reduced male harassment and increased foraging efficiency in a closely related poecilid ( Gambusia holbrooki ) [38]. Increased shoaling tendencies in females may drive the shoaling-related cognitive advantage observed in G. affinis females as seen in our spatio-temporal learning task in which females were more successful than males in predicting the time and place of the shoal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in cognitive performance, style and domain relationships in mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

et al. 2019

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1 2 1 3 2 Highlights 1 4-Males and females perform at similar levels in associative learning and cognitive 1 5 flexibility assays, but females tend to outperform males on a spatio-temporal learning 1 6 task.1 7 -Female performance in associative learning trials (numerical discrimination task) can be 1 8 predicted by cognitive style behaviors (exploration, reaction time, and activity); whereas 1 9 male performance cannot. 2 0 -Males, but not females, show a predictive relationship between associative learning and 2 1 cognitive flexibility performance.2 2 -Our results demonstrate that sex differences in cognition extend beyond performance 2 3 into cognitive style and domain relationships, suggesting that investigations into animal 2 4 personality and cognition require more comprehensive characterization. Abstract 2 7Given that the sexes often differ in their ecological and sexual selection pressures, sex 2 8 differences in cognitive properties are likely. While research on sexually dimorphic cognition 2 9often focuses on performance, it commonly overlooks how sexes diverge across multiple 3 0 cognitive tasks (cognitive domains) and in behaviors associated with cognitive performance 3 1 (cognitive style). We tested male and female western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) in three 3 2 cognitive tasks: associative learning (numerical discrimination), cognitive flexibility (detour 3 3 task), and spatio-temporal learning (shuttlebox). We characterized statistical relationships 3 4 between cognitive performances and cognitive style during the associative learning task with 3 5 measures of anxiety, boldness, exploration, reaction time, and activity. We found sex 3 6 differences in performance, cognitive style, and the relationships between cognitive domains. 3 7

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Rational choice of social group size in mosquitofish

Cited by 5 publications

References 25 publications

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Does the match between individual and group behavior matter in shoaling sticklebacks?

Sex differences in cognitive performance, style and domain relationships in mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

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