Data from: Aggressive jumping spiders make quicker decisions for preferred prey but not at the cost of accuracy

There has been an increasing interest in consistent inter-individual differences in behavior (i.e., personality) in recent years. However, consistent inter-individual differences in cognitive styles remain largely unexplored. Individual differences in cognitive styles are hypothesized to be functionally related to differences in personality types. It is assumed that proactive individuals make faster decisions at the expense of accuracy (i.e., the speed-accuracy trade-offs hypothesis). Here we investigated the relationship between personality and speed-accuracy trade-off using Portia labiata, a specialized spider-eating jumping spider that exhibits excellent cognitive ability. We first established consistent individual differences in aggressiveness and decision-making in P. labiata. We then tested whether individual differences in aggressiveness could predict how fast and accurately P. labiata makes a prey-choice decision (a large versus a small orb-web spider). We demonstrated that P. labiata exhibited individual differences not only in aggressiveness, but also in the speed of prey-choice decisions but not in the choices. Importantly, we found that aggressiveness was not related to the choice of the prey, but it predicted the speed of prey-choice decision: aggressive individuals were faster to make choices than docile ones but both chose large spiders as preferred prey. This suggests a lack of an association between a speed-accuracy trade-off and variation in personality types of P. labiata.

近年来，学界对行为层面稳定的个体差异（即人格）的关注度持续攀升。然而，认知风格维度的稳定个体差异在很大程度上仍未得到系统探索。有假说指出，认知风格的个体差异与人格类型差异存在功能相关性。学界普遍假定，主动型个体决策速度更快，但会以牺牲准确性为代价，即速度-准确性权衡假说。本研究以具有卓越认知能力的专以蜘蛛为食的跳蛛——波西亚蜘蛛（Portia labiata）为实验对象，探究了人格与速度-准确性权衡之间的关联。我们首先验证了波西亚蜘蛛在攻击性与决策行为层面存在稳定的个体差异；随后测试了攻击性的个体差异能否预测其在猎物选择决策（选择大型圆网蛛与小型圆网蛛）中的决策速度与准确性。研究结果表明，波西亚蜘蛛不仅在攻击性、猎物选择决策速度上存在个体差异，但在猎物选择偏好上未表现出显著个体差异。尤为关键的是，我们发现攻击性与猎物选择偏好并无关联，但可显著预测猎物选择决策速度：攻击性更强的个体做出选择的速度快于温顺个体，但两类个体均偏好选择大型圆网蛛作为猎物。这一发现提示，波西亚蜘蛛的速度-准确性权衡与其人格类型的个体差异之间不存在关联。