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.诸多动物均以群体为单位生活，但个体间的集群倾向以及对不同规模群体的偏好差异显著。这种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个体差异。尽管这类差异大概率与个体认知差异相关，但目前直接探究认知能力如何影响个体集群决策（grouping decisions）的研究仍较为匮乏。因此，本研究以群居性慈鲷布氏新亮丽鲷（Neolamprologus pulcher）为研究对象，探究其基于觅食的反转学习任务（foraging-based reversal learning task）表现与集群偏好（即偏好3条鱼组成的群体还是单条鱼）之间的关联。尽管多数受试慈鲷相较于单条鱼更倾向于与群体结伴，但在捕食风险升高的环境下，完成学习任务最快的个体对群体的兴趣反而最低。此外，能够快速完成反转学习任务的个体，在捕食风险升高时其集群偏好的调整幅度也最大，这表明学习表现与集群决策间的关联，可能与个体行为灵活性（behavioural flexibility）的差异有关。综上，本研究结果为揭示集群决策个体间差异的潜在影响因素提供了宝贵的学术见解。