Data from: Learning performance is associated with social preferences in a group-living fish

Many animals live in groups yet grouping tendencies and preferences for groups of different sizes vary considerably between individuals. This variation reflects, at least in part, differences in how individuals evaluate and perceive their physical surroundings and their social environment. While such differences are likely related to individual variation in cognition, there have been few studies that have directly investigated how cognitive abilities are linked to individual grouping decisions. Therefore, in this study we assessed whether performance on a foraging-based reversal learning task is related to grouping preferences (a group of three fish versus a single fish) in a group-living cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. While most fish preferred to associate with the group over a single fish, individuals that completed the learning task the quickest were the least interested in the group under elevated predation risk. In addition, fish that quickly completed the reversal learning task also adjusted their grouping preferences the most when predation risk increased suggesting that the observed relationship between learning performance and grouping decisions may be linked to individual differences in behavioural flexibility. Overall, our results offer valuable insight into the potential factors that underlie interindividual variation in grouping decisions.

诸多动物均营群体生活，但个体间的群体聚集倾向以及对不同规模群体的偏好存在显著差异。这一差异至少部分反映了个体在评估与感知自身物理环境及社会环境时的差异。尽管此类差异大概率与个体认知差异相关，但直接探究认知能力与个体群体决策间关联的研究仍较为匮乏。因此，本研究以群居性丽鱼新亮丽鲷（Neolamprologus pulcher）为研究对象，评估基于觅食范式的反转学习任务表现与群体偏好（选择三尾鱼群体还是单尾鱼）之间是否存在关联。尽管多数受试个体更倾向于与群体而非单尾鱼结伴，但在捕食风险升高的环境中，完成学习任务最快的个体对群体的兴趣反而最低。此外，快速完成反转学习任务的个体，在捕食风险提升时其群体偏好的调整幅度也最大，这表明学习表现与群体决策间的关联，可能与个体行为灵活性的差异密切相关。综上，本研究结果为解析个体间群体决策差异的潜在成因提供了宝贵见解。