To innovate or not: contrasting effects of social groupings on safe and risky foraging in Indian mynahs

Griffin, Andrea S.; Lermite, Françoise; Perea, Marjorie; Guez, David

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.09.035

Cited by 47 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…As a consequence, we cannot speak to whether similar behavioural differences in learning 316 and sampling occur in male mynas. In extensive previous work on problem solving, we have not found 317 any sex effects on performance (Griffin et al 2013b;Griffin and Diquelou 2015). 318…”

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confidence: 64%

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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confidence: 64%

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

et al. 2016

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“…Studies of neophobia and exploration have had conflicting results, but all agree that there is change in how an individual's reacts to novel items or experiences depending on the social situation. Most studies suggest that, at least in birds, neophobia increases with the addition of individuals to a group (Griffin, Lermite, Perea, & Guez, 2013;Overington, Cauchard, Morand-Ferron, & Lefebvre, 2009;Stöwe et al, 2006;van Oers, 2005). In some cases, however, particularly when flocks of birds were studied, exploration of novelty and problem solving increased with group size.…”

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confidence: 99%

Applying Theoretical Models on Human Creativity to Animal Studies

Kaufman¹,

Kaufman²

2014

AB&C

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-While creativity in humans has been actively studied for some time, it is only recently been a topic of interest in non-human animals. In order to take advantage of what is already known and to avoid redundancy, communication between those who study humans and animals is crucial. There are several models which are actively used in the study of creativity in humans which can be easily applied to animals to assist with the definition, classification, and characterization of behaviors.

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“…Although research investigating the relationship between problemsolving efficiency and group size has yielded mixed results (Liker and Bókony 2009;Overington et al 2009;Griffin et al 2013), 2 studies in recent years have revealed that nonhuman animals may also show an increase in problemsolving efficiency with increased group size (Liker and Bókony 2009;. In nonhuman animals, solving of novel problems, referred to as innovative problem solving, is most often operationalized by measuring an individual's success in solving, or latency to solve, an extractive foraging task consisting of some kind of container that must be opened to access food Benson-Amram and Holekamp 2012;Thornton and Samson 2012;Griffin et al 2013; for a review, see Griffin and Guez 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…If problem solving is vulnerable to interference competition, from kleptoparasitism for example, then the frequency of problem solving should decrease in the presence of other individuals when compared with solitary conditions as has been found for food processing behaviors (Overington et al 2009). If problem solving is vulnerable to a "negotiation over risk," then problem solving may also be reduced in larger groups (Stöwe et al 2006;Griffin et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In nonhuman animals, solving of novel problems, referred to as innovative problem solving, is most often operationalized by measuring an individual's success in solving, or latency to solve, an extractive foraging task consisting of some kind of container that must be opened to access food Benson-Amram and Holekamp 2012;Thornton and Samson 2012;Griffin et al 2013; for a review, see Griffin and Guez 2014). Liker and Bókony (2009) measured the ability of wild-caught, captive-held house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to access 3.5-cm diameter wells containing food.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Innovative problem solving in nonhuman animals: the effects of group size revisited

Griffin

Guez

2015

Behavioral Ecology

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Sociality is associated with a variety of costs and benefits, one of which can be to increase the likelihood of individuals solving novel problems. Several hypotheses explaining why groups show higher innovative problem-solving efficiencies than individuals alone have been proposed including the sharing of antipredator vigilance and the pool-of-competence effect, whereby larger groups containing a more diverse range of individuals are more likely to contain individuals with the skills necessary to solve the particular problem at hand. Interference between group members may cause groups to have lower problem solving abilities, however. Using a simulation approach, we model the shape of the relationship between group-level problem-solving probability and group size across a range of facilitation and inhibition scenarios, various population distributions of problem solving, and a task requiring 1 action or 2 actions to be solved. Simulations showed that both sharing of antipredator vigilance and the addition of competent individuals to an existing group lead to positive relationships between group-level problem solving and group size that reach 100% solving probability, whereas interference effects generate group-solving probabilities that rise to a maximum and decrease again, generating a group size for which problem solving is maximized. In contrast, both inhibition and facilitation scenarios generate identical patterns of individual efficiencies. Our results have important implications for our ability to understand the mechanisms that underpin group-size effects on problem solving in nonhumans.

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To innovate or not: contrasting effects of social groupings on safe and risky foraging in Indian mynahs

Cited by 47 publications

References 51 publications

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

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

Applying Theoretical Models on Human Creativity to Animal Studies

Innovative problem solving in nonhuman animals: the effects of group size revisited

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