The performance of rooks in a cooperative task depends on their temperament

In recent years, an increasing number of studies demonstrated the existence of consistent individual differences in behaviour, often referred to as differences in temperament or personality, in a wide range of animal species. There notably is a growing body of evidence showing that individuals differ in their propensity for risk taking or reacting to stressful situations. This variation has been related to differences in learning abilities or performance in cognitive tasks. In the present study, we examined the consequences of inter-individual variation in boldness on performance in a cooperative task in rooks (Corvus frugilegus). Birds were tested individually to measure a number of behavioural parameters related to boldness. The level of a stress-related hormone, corticosterone, in the faeces of each bird was measured under control conditions and after a stress-provoking event. In parallel, we conducted a cooperative string pulling task in which birds were tested in dyads. Successful cooperation depended to a large extent on the temperament of the two partners involved. Temperament, in turn, correlated well with corticosterone levels under stress. Bolder individuals appeared to be more willing to participate in the task, whereas shyer individuals were more influenced by the behaviour of their partner. These findings suggest that a rook’s temperament can limit its options of forming successfully cooperating partnerships under stressful conditions.     

The relevance of recent developments in classical conditioning to understanding the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders

Current etiological models of anxiety disorders emphasize both internal diatheses, or risk factors, and external stressors as important in the development and maintenance of clinical anxiety. Although considerable evidence suggests personality, genetic, and environmental variables are important to these diathesis-stress interactions, this general approach could be greatly enriched by incorporating recent developments in experimental research on fear and anxiety learning. In this article, we attempt to integrate the experimental literature on fear/anxiety learning and the psychopathology literature on clinical anxiety, identify areas of inconsistency, and recommend directions for future research. First, we provide an overview of contemporary models of anxiety disorders involving fear/anxiety learning. Next, we review the literature on individual differences in associative learning among anxious and non-anxious individuals. We also examine additional possible sources of individual differences in the learning of both fear and anxiety, and indicate where possible parallels may be drawn. Finally, we discuss recent developments in basic experimental research on fear conditioning and anxiety, with particular attention to research on contextual learning, and indicate the relevance of these findings to anxiety disorders.     

Implicit learning as an ability

The ability to automatically and implicitly detect complex and noisy regularities in the environment is a fundamental aspect of human cognition. Despite considerable interest in implicit processes, few researchers have conceptualized implicit learning as an ability with meaningful individual differences. Instead, various researchers (e.g., Reber, 1993; Stanovich, 2009) have suggested that individual differences in implicit learning are minimal relative to individual differences in explicit learning. In the current study of English 16–17 year old students, we investigated the association of individual differences in implicit learning with a variety of cognitive and personality variables. Consistent with prior research and theorizing, implicit learning, as measured by a probabilistic sequence learning task, was more weakly related to psychometric intelligence than was explicit associative learning, and was unrelated to working memory. Structural equation modeling revealed that implicit learning was independently related to two components of psychometric intelligence: verbal analogical reasoning and processing speed. Implicit learning was also independently related to academic performance on two foreign language exams (French, German). Further, implicit learning was significantly associated with aspects of self-reported personality, including intuition, Openness to Experience, and impulsivity. We discuss the implications of implicit learning as an ability for dual-process theories of cognition, intelligence, personality, skill learning, complex cognition, and language acquisition.     

Olfactory learning in individually assayed Drosophila larvae

Insect and mammalian olfactory systems are strikingly similar. Therefore, Drosophila can be used as a simple model for olfaction and olfactory learning. The brain of adult Drosophila, however, is still complex. We therefore chose to work on the larva with its yet simpler but adult-like olfactory system and provide evidence for olfactory learning in individually assayed Drosophila larvae. We developed a differential conditioning paradigm in which odorants are paired with positive (“+” fructose) or negative (“-” quinine or sodium chloride) gustatory reinforcers. Test performance of individuals from two treatment conditions is compared—one received odorant A with the positive reinforcer and odorant B with a negative reinforcer (A+/B-); animals from the other treatment condition were trained reciprocally (A-/B+). During test, differences in choice between A and B of individuals having undergone either A+/B- or A-/B+ training therefore indicate associative learning. We provide such evidence for both combinations of reinforcers; this was replicable across repetitions, laboratories, and experimenters. We further show that breaks improve performance, in accord with basic principles of associative learning. The present individual assay will facilitate electrophysiological studies, which necessarily use individuals. As such approaches are established for the larval neuromuscular synapse, but not in adults, an individual larval learning paradigm will serve to link behavioral levels of analysis to synaptic physiology.     

Revisiting Reciprocity: How Accountability,Proactivity, and Interpersonal Skills Shape Obligations to Reciprocate Citizenship Behavior

Across two studies, we directly test the widely held tenet in the scholarship of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) that individuals choose to engage in OCB as a result of felt obligations to reciprocate. We further examine how obligations to reciprocate operate against a backdrop of relevant contextual factors (accountability) and individual differences (proactive personality and interpersonal skill). Using an experimental method, we find evidence supporting the proposition that reciprocity obligations increase OCB engagement and that these effects are amplified by contexts high in accountability and when individuals possess high levels of proactive personality. In a subsequent field study, we find further corroborating evidence for the effects of reciprocity obligations on OCB and reaffirm the moderating influences of proactive personality and accountability. Overall, the convergent evidence supports the causal relationship between reciprocity obligations and OCB, as well as explicates the conditions under which this foundational effect operates across individuals and varying contexts.

     

Cognitive test batteries in animal cognition research: evaluating the past,present and future of comparative psychometrics

For the past two decades, behavioural ecologists have documented consistent individual differences in behavioural traits within species and found evidence for animal “personality”. It is only relatively recently, however, that increasing numbers of researchers have begun to investigate individual differences in cognitive ability within species. It has been suggested that cognitive test batteries may provide an ideal tool for this growing research endeavour. In fact, cognitive test batteries have now been used to examine the causes, consequences and underlying structure of cognitive performance within and between many species. In this review, we document the existing attempts to develop cognitive test batteries for non-human animals and review the claims that these studies have made in terms of the structure and evolution of cognition. We argue that our current test battery methods could be improved on multiple fronts, from the design of tasks, to the domains targeted and the species tested. Refining and optimising test battery design will provide many benefits. In future, we envisage that well-designed cognitive test batteries may provide answers to a range of exciting questions, including giving us greater insight into the evolution and structure of cognition.     

Neophobia is negatively related to reversal learning ability in females of a generalist bird of prey,the Chimango Caracara, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Milvago chimango</Emphasis>

In an ever-changing environment, the ability to adapt choices to new conditions is essential for daily living and ultimately, for survival. Behavioural flexibility allows animals to maximise survival and reproduction in novel settings by adjusting their behaviour based on specific information and feedback acquired in their current environments. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that an individual’s personality type can limit the extent to which the individual might behave flexibly, by influencing the way an individual pays attention to novelty and how much information it collects and stores, which in turn affects the individual’s decision-making and learning process. In this study, the behavioural flexibility of a generalist predator, the Chimango Caracara, Milvago chimango, was analysed using the reversal learning paradigm, focusing on the comparison between age classes, and the relation of learning flexibility with a personality trait, the level of neophobia. Due to the low number of male individuals captured, this study was carried out only with female birds. The results showed that age had no significant effect either on the acquisition of a stimulus-reward association, or on the capacity of reversing this previously learned association. Reversal of the response was a harder task for these birds in comparison with the initial acquisition process. The individual’s performances in the learning tasks seemed to be uncorrelated with each other, suggesting that they involve different neural mechanisms. Contrary to the general pattern observed in the majority of previous work on personality and cognition in non-human animals, the level of neophobia did not correlate with the initial associative learning performance in both adults and juveniles, yet it showed a significant negative relationship with reversal learning ability, mainly in the regressive phase of this task, for the two age classes. Our results suggest that the predatory and generalist lifestyle of female individuals of M. chimango along with the selective pressures of the environment of the individuals studied might play a critical role in the degree and direction of the linkage between novelty response and learning flexibility observed in this study.     

The impact of egg incubation temperature on the personality of oviparous reptiles

Personality traits, defined as differences in the behavior of individual animals of the same species that are consistent over time and context, such as ‘boldness,’ have been shown to be both heritable and be influenced by external factors, such as predation pressure. Currently, we know very little about the role that early environmental factors have upon personality. Thus, we investigated the impact of incubation temperature upon the boldness on an oviparous reptile, the bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps). Eggs, from one clutch, were incubated at two different average temperatures within the normal range. After hatching the lizards were raised under the same environmental conditions. Novel object and novel environment tests were used to assess personality. Each test was repeated in both the short term and the long term. The results revealed that incubation temperature did impact upon ‘boldness’ but only in the short term and suggests that, rather than influencing personality, incubation temperature may have an effect on the development of behavioral of oviparous reptiles at different stages across ontogeny.     

Eye gaze and individual differences consistent with learned attention in associative blocking and highlighting

The associative learning effects called blocking and highlighting have previously been explained by covert learned attention, but evidence for learned attention has been indirect, via models of response choice. The present research reports results from eye tracking consistent with the attentional hypothesis: Gaze duration is diminished for blocked cues and augmented for highlighted cues. If degree of attentional learning varies across individuals but is relatively stable within individuals, then the magnitude of blocking and highlighting should covary across individuals. This predicted correlation is obtained for both choice and eye gaze. A connectionist model that implements attentional learning is shown to fit the data and account for individual differences by variation in its attentional parameters.     

Individual differences in cognitive control: The role of psychoticism and working memory in set‐shifting

Set‐shifting refers to a process of cognitive control which is shown through flexible behavioural adaptation to changes in task parameters or demands, such as the switching of an explicit rule (extra‐dimensional rule shifting) or the reversal of a reinforcement‐contingency (reversal‐learning). Set‐shifting deficits are widely documented in specific neuropsychological disorders, but seldom investigated in relation to normally‐occurring individual differences. In a sample of healthy adults (N=78, 28% male), we demonstrate that Working Memory and trait Psychoticism have independent involvement in extra‐dimensional rule shifting as measured using an analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Only Psychoticism, however, was involved in reversal‐learning, as assessed using a recent modification of the Iowa Gambling Task. Individual differences in extra‐dimensional rule shifting were explained in terms of rule abstraction speed, while individual differences in reversal‐learning were explained in terms of response perseveration. These results clarify component processes in different forms of set‐shifting, and highlight the role of individual differences, especially personality, in cognitive control.     

惩罚预期对羞怯个体注意偏向的影响

本研究采用点探测研究范式，通过三个实验研究探讨惩罚预期对羞怯个体注意偏向的影响。得出以下研究结论：（1）羞怯个体在惩罚预期条件下对消极情绪面孔存在注意偏向。（2）在短时间进程下，惩罚频率的改变没有影响羞怯个体的注意偏向。在长时间进程下，高惩罚频率更容易使羞怯个体逃避消极情绪面孔图片。（3）惩罚预期大更容易使羞怯个体有回避消极情绪面孔的倾向。     

Construct validity of a personality assessment game in a simulated selection situation and the moderating roles of the ability to identify criteria and dispositional insight

There is scant research on the validity of personality assessment games in selection situations. Therefore, in two experimental simulated selection studies, the construct validity of an assessment game developed to assess honesty-humility was tested. Both studies found no differences between a control condition and a simulated selection condition on honesty-humility game scores. Moreover, convergent and discriminant validity with self-reported personality were not affected by the manipulation. We obtained mixed evidence that individual differences in dispositional insight and the ability to identify criteria influenced the validity of the game. As the validity of the personality assessment game was not significantly affected in the simulated selection context, our findings may imply that well-designed personality assessment games can be used for high-stakes selection assessments.     

Is Character Fate,or Is There Hope to Change My Personality Yet?

Different perspectives on personality development propose a range of possible degrees to which traits are free to change, from hardly at all to very much. This essay reviews the empirical evidence on just how consistent and changeable personality traits are across the life course. To gain a thorough perspective on personality trait development, we review developmental studies that focus on three different types of change: rank‐order consistency, mean level change, and individual level change. Starting in late childhood, personality traits exhibit modest levels of rank‐order consistency that increase with age. In addition personality traits show mean level changes, especially in young adulthood, that are consistent with the idea of increasing maturity. Finally, despite these general trends in personality continuity and change, there is evidence that individuals may change in ways that contradict general trends and that these individual differences in change are related to life experiences.     

Born to fear: non-associative vs associative factors in the etiology of phobias

Poulton and Menzies (Behaviour Research & Therapy 40 (2001) 127-149) review two lines of evidence as supporting a non-associative pathway to the origins of "evolutionary relevant phobias". First, in retrospective studies of mode of onset some recall they have always had this fear. We review here solid evidence that retrospective recall is notoriously unreliable. Second, they note as many nonphobics recall relevant associative learning experiences as do phobics. We argue such studies are very inconclusive because they fail to consider many experiential and personality vulnerability (and invulnerability) factors that strongly impact the outcome of any putative learning experience. Their argument also does not explain the transition from developmental fears to phobias that is central to their thesis. Overall, we call for major methodological improvements in this area, in the context of theoretical developments pointing to interacting vulnerability and invulnerability factors.     

Timing at the Start of Associative Learning

Some theories of associative learning imply that time plays a fundamental role in the acquisition process. Consistent with these theories, this paper presents evidence that the time from the onset of a conditioned stimulus (CS) until presentation of the unconditioned stimulus (US) is learned very rapidly at the start of training. We report two autoshaping studies and a study on aversive conditioning in goldfish in which we examine timing at the start of conditioning. We also review data from a number of other conditioning preparations, including fear-potentiated startle, appetitive conditioning in rats, and eyeblink conditioning in rabbits, that report conditioned response (CR) timing early in training. Acquisition speed and the very first expressions of conditioned responding often show sensitivity to the time of US presentation. In instances where temporal control is slowly expressed, it is likely due to performance factors, not to slow learning about time. In fact, the learning about time may be a necessary condition for associative learning.     

Worms under cover: relationships between performance in learning tasks and personality in great tits (Parus major)

In animals, individual differences in learning ability are common and are in part explained by genetic differences, developmental conditions and by general experience. Yet, not all variations in learning are well understood. Individual differences in learning may be associated with elementary individual characteristics that are consistent across situations and over time, commonly referred to as personality or temperament. Here, we tested whether or not male great tits (Parus major) from two selection lines for fast or slow exploratory behaviour, an operational measure for avian personality, vary in their learning performance in two related consecutive tasks. In the first task, birds had to associate a colour with a reward whereas in the second task, they had to associate a new colour with a reward ignoring the previously rewarded colour. Slow explorers had shorter latencies to approach the experimental device compared with fast explorers in both tasks, but birds from the two selection lines did not differ in accomplishing the first task, that is, to associate a colour with a reward. However, in the second task, fast explorers had longer latencies to solve the trials than slow explorers. Moreover, relative to the number of trials needed to reach the learning criteria in the first task, birds from the slow selection line took more trials to associate a new colour with a reward while ignoring the previously learned association compared with birds from the fast selection line. Overall, the experiments suggest that personality in great tits is not strongly related to learning per se in such an association task, but that birds from different selection lines might express different learning strategies as birds from the different selection lines were differently affected by their previous learning performance.     

A Further Evaluation of the Triarchic Conceptualization of Psychopathy in College Students

The current study provides additional information about the nomological networks of the personality dimensions associated with the triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy – boldness, meanness, and disinhibition (Patrick et al. 2009). All analyses were based on a sample of college students (N = 633 to 637; 50 % women). We evaluated correlations between measures of the triarchic constructs and measures of the facets and domains of the Five-Factor Model (FFM). We also evaluated associations between triarchic constructs and measures of self-esteem, narcissism, aggression and antisocial behavior and tested whether the triarchic measures increment measures of the FFM for predicting these variables. We replicated and extended previous studies concerning the correlates of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. We also found evidence that measures of the triarchic dimensions incremented measures of the FFM, especially when considering self-reported antisocial behavior.     

Terror Management and Personality: Variations in the Psychological Defense Against the Awareness of Mortality

Drawing on terror management theory (TMT), we discuss the psychological motivations that shape personality at two levels: the characteristically human personality common to us all and the individual differences that distinguish some people from others. TMT posits that the motivation to protect the self against deep-rooted fears about mortality drives people to maintain meaningful, reliable conceptions of reality and positive evaluations of themselves, two broad tendencies that form the foundation of every person’s personality. We review studies showing that mortality reminders increase efforts to bolster cultural sources of meaning and self-esteem in similar ways across individuals and cultures. TMT also posits that individual differences in personality partly reflect the different sources of meaning and self-esteem that people invest in to assuage mortality fears. We review evidence that individual differences predict the degree and direction of people’s defensive responses to mortality reminders. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Some People Heed Advice Less than Others: Agency (but Not Communion) Predicts Advice Taking

Across three studies (total N = 793), we investigated the link between two fundamental dimensions of personality, agency and communion, and advice taking in quantity estimation tasks. We complemented the analyses of the individual studies with meta‐analyses across all three studies in order to gain insight into the robustness of our core results. In line with our expectations, agency was associated with less advice taking, and this effect was mediated by individuals' perceptions of their own competence. Contrary to what we expected, we did not find consistent evidence that communion systematically relates to advice taking. Analyses of judges' initial accuracy further suggested that agentic judges' lower willingness to heed advice was justified by greater initial accuracy as compared with their less agentic peers. Our data, thus, provide evidence of individual differences in advice taking and shed some light on the question which individuals are more inclined to heed advice than others. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Associative learning predicts intelligence above and beyond working memory and processing speed

Recent evidence suggests the existence of multiple cognitive mechanisms that support the general cognitive ability factor (g). Working memory and processing speed are the two best established candidate mechanisms. Relatively little attention has been given to the possibility that associative learning is an additional mechanism contributing to g. The present study tested the hypothesis that associative learning ability, as assessed by psychometrically sound associative learning tasks, would predict variance in g above and beyond the variance predicted by working memory capacity and processing speed. This hypothesis was confirmed in a sample of 169 adolescents, using structural equation modeling. Associative learning, working memory, and processing speed all contributed significant unique variance to g, indicating not only that multiple elementary cognitive processes underlie intelligence, but also the novel finding that associative learning is one such process.