Individual variation in cognitive performance: developmental and evolutionary perspectives

Animal cognition experiments frequently reveal striking individual variation but rarely consider its causes and largely ignore its potential consequences. Studies often focus on a subset of high-performing subjects, sometimes viewing evidence from a single individual as sufficient to demonstrate the...

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Veröffentlicht in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences Jg. 367; H. 1603; S. 2773
Hauptverfasser: Thornton, Alex, Lukas, Dieter
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: England 05.10.2012
Schlagworte:
Adaptation, Physiological
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biological Evolution
Cognition - physiology
Competitive Behavior - physiology
Environment
Genetic Fitness - physiology
Individuality
Inheritance Patterns
Learning - physiology
Tool Use Behavior - physiology
ISSN:1471-2970, 1471-2970
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Zusammenfassung:Animal cognition experiments frequently reveal striking individual variation but rarely consider its causes and largely ignore its potential consequences. Studies often focus on a subset of high-performing subjects, sometimes viewing evidence from a single individual as sufficient to demonstrate the cognitive capacity of a species. We argue that the emphasis on demonstrating species-level cognitive capacities detracts from the value of individual variation in understanding cognitive development and evolution. We consider developmental and evolutionary interpretations of individual variation and use meta-analyses of data from published studies to examine predictors of individual performance. We show that reliance on small sample sizes precludes robust conclusions about individual abilities as well as inter- and intraspecific differences. We advocate standardization of experimental protocols and pooling of data between laboratories to improve statistical rigour. Our analyses show that cognitive performance is influenced by age, sex, rearing conditions and previous experience. These effects limit the validity of comparative analyses unless developmental histories are taken into account, and complicate attempts to understand how cognitive traits are expressed and selected under natural conditions. Further understanding of cognitive evolution requires efforts to elucidate the heritability of cognitive traits and establish whether elevated cognitive performance confers fitness advantages in nature.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ObjectType-Review-3
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ISSN:1471-2970
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2012.0214