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Within-species Variation in Cognition in Cichlid Fishes: Influences of Social Status and Personality

Hoskins, Elizabeth Anne, Hoskins
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1534697987232761

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology.
Cognition, the processes involved in acquiring, storing, and the use of information from the environment, plays a critical role in the presentation of behavior. Cognition may influence the perception of risk, the success in which an individual obtains mating opportunities, or how an individual navigates through a complex habitat. While there are benefits to having some cognitive abilities, there is also variation within a species for many of these abilities. Differences in social status and behavioral type between individuals may drive the variation we observe in cognitive abilities. For my dissertation, I examine this main question: How does individual variation in status and personality influence cognition? Specifically, I investigate how 1) dominance hierarchies influence the ability to recognize individuals, 2) dominance hierarchies influence use of socially acquired information, and 3) personality influences the rate of associative learning. I use an experimental approach using two Lake Tanganyikan fish species, Neolamprologus pulcher and Julidochromis ornatus. Both are species that live in long term groups with dominance hierarchies. In Chapter 2, I examine if mid-ranking individuals can recognize multiple individuals, and if they prioritize who they can individually identify based on potential fitness benefits. Using live and animated stimuli of N. pulcher, I found that mid-ranking individuals can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Even more, they can distinguish high-ranking (dominant) familiar and unfamiliar fish as well as lower-ranking individuals. These results suggest that individuals benefit from recognizing multiple members of their group. In Chapter 3, I hypothesized that observers would use social information from individuals that would increase their fitness. Specifically, I predicted that observers would use information from demonstrators more dominant (which in N. pulcher are older and larger) than themselves. I tested this is N. pulcher and I found that observers used social information from females that were larger than themselves, suggesting that social status does influence the use of social information. This could be either because they pay more attention to these individuals or because these individuals have been successful at foraging and avoiding predators In Chapter 4, I tested the hypothesis that an interaction between personality and type of association task influences an individual’s learning rate. Specifically, I predicted that highly aggressive and exploratory individuals would learn novel associations quickly and reversal associations more slowly, compared to less aggressive and exploratory individuals. I tested this hypothesis with two food-location association tasks in J. ornatus. I did not find that personality was associated with learning rate, thus failing to support my hypothesis. However, I did find that social environment (whether individuals had a mate) influenced learning task completion and environmental temperature influences learning rate. In an environment where food is limited, this suggests that motivation for a food reward influences learning. As a whole, this work suggests that the variation in an individual’s social environment does influence cognitive abilities, but I did not find evidence that variation in an individual’s personality influences the cognitive abilities that I explored.
Ian Hamilton (Advisor)
J Andrew Roberts (Committee Member)
Suzanne Gray (Committee Member)
Dawn Kitchen (Committee Member)
109 p.
Ecology; Evolution and Development; Zoology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hoskins, Hoskins, E. A. (2018). Within-species Variation in Cognition in Cichlid Fishes: Influences of Social Status and Personality [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1534697987232761

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hoskins, Hoskins, Elizabeth. Within-species Variation in Cognition in Cichlid Fishes: Influences of Social Status and Personality. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1534697987232761.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hoskins, Hoskins, Elizabeth. "Within-species Variation in Cognition in Cichlid Fishes: Influences of Social Status and Personality." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1534697987232761

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1534697987232761
402
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.