Great-tailed grackle inhibition data

Behavioral flexibility should theoretically be positively related to behavioral inhibition (hereafter referred to as inhibition) because one should need to inhibit a previously learned behavior to change their behavior when the task changes [the flexibility component; @manrique_repeated_2013; @griffin2014innovation; @liu2016learning]. However, several investigations show no or mixed support of this hypothesis, which challenges the assumption that inhibition is involved in making flexible decisions. We aimed to test the hypothesis that behavioral flexibility (measured as reversal learning and solution switching on a multi-access box by @logan2019flexmanip) is associated with behavioral inhibition by measuring both variables in the same individuals and three inhibition tests (a go/no go task on a touchscreen, a detour task, and a delay of gratification experiment). We set out to measure grackle inhibition to determine whether those individuals that are more flexible are also better at inhibition. Because touchscreen experiments had never been conducted in this species, we additionally validated that a touchscreen setup is functional for wild-caught grackles who learned to use the touchscreen and completed the go/no go inhibition task on it. Results showed that the number of trials to reverse a preference in the reversal learning experiment positively correlated with performance only on the go/no go inhibition task. Performance on the detour inhibition task did not correlate with either measure of behavioral flexibility, suggesting that detour performance and reversal learning may measure two separate traits. We were not able to run the delay of gratification experiment because the grackles never habituated to the apparatuses. Performance on the go/no go and detour behavioral inhibition tests did not correlate with each other, indicating that they did not measure the same trait. We conclude that behavioral flexibility is associated with certain types of inhibition, but not others, in great-tailed grackles.