Great-tailed grackle behavioral flexibility and problem solving experiments, Santa Barbara, CA USA 2014-2015

Behavioral flexibility is considered an important trait for adapting to environmental change, but it is unclear what it is, how it works, and whether it is a problem solving ability. I investigated behavioral flexibility and problem solving experimentally in great- tailed grackles, an invasive bird species and thus a likely candidate for possessing behavioral flexibility. Grackles demonstrated behavioral flexibility in two contexts, the Aesop’s Fable paradigm and a color association test. Contrary to predictions, behavioral flexibility did not correlate across contexts. Four out of 6 grackles exhibited efficient problem solving abilities, but problem solving efficiency did not appear to be directly linked with behavioral flexibility. Problem solving speed also did not significantly correlate with reversal learning scores, indicating that faster learners were not the most flexible. These results reveal how little we know about behavioral flexibility, and provide an immense opportunity for future research to explore how individuals and species can use behavior to react to changing environments.

行为灵活性（behavioral flexibility）被视为适应环境变化的关键性状，但目前学界对其本质、作用机制，乃至其是否属于问题解决能力（problem solving ability）仍不甚明晰。本研究以入侵性鸟类大尾拟八哥（great-tailed grackle）为对象，通过实验手段探究其行为灵活性与问题解决能力。鉴于该物种为入侵种，其大概率具备行为灵活性。受试个体在两项实验范式中表现出行为灵活性：伊索寓言范式（Aesop’s Fable paradigm）与颜色联想测试（color association test）。与预期相悖的是，不同实验情境下的行为灵活性并无显著相关性。6只受试大尾拟八哥中有4只展现出高效的问题解决能力，但问题解决效率与行为灵活性之间并未呈现直接关联。问题解决速度与反转学习（reversal learning）得分同样未呈现显著相关性，这表明学习速度更快的个体并非灵活性最强的个体。本研究结果揭示了当前学界对行为灵活性的认知仍极为有限，同时为未来探索个体与物种如何通过行为应对环境变化提供了广阔的研究空间。