How to react to a changing environment by inhibiting past behavior

Researchers from the UK, USA, and Germany collaborated to study the role of flexibility in problem solving. They also studied how they relate to one another in a behaviorally flexible urban bird species called the great-tailed gratch. Multiple tests were used to assess cognitive abilities and the researchers found that self control, which is a form of inhibition was associated with flexibility, the ability of changing preferences when circumstances change.

Self control is linked to behavioral flexibility

Researchers discovered that grackles were more likely to change their color preference (a standard measure of flexibility) than to inhibit their behavior in a “go no-go” test, where they touch one shape to earn a reward, but not the other on a touchscreen computer. This suggests that inhibition may be involved in learning how to change a preference. Corina Logan is a senior researcher at Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology and the lead author.

If you use a higher degree of flexibility, the time it takes to switch to a new option on the puzzlebox after having solved the previous option successfully is the opposite. Grackles who were more quick to switch were slower to stop their behavior in the “go no-go” test. The authors speculate that different birds might use different inhibitory strategies. Those less inclined to inhibit might explore all options. This makes it more likely they will solve the puzzlebox correctly, but they wouldn’t be able to use this strategy in situations where they have to stick with one option.

Kelsey McCune, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of California Santa Barbara noted differences in strategies used by the grackles during the ‘go/no-go’ test on the computer. “It was evident that some birds were content with being rewarded inconsistently and so they pecked away at everything on the screen. Other birds, however, clearly understood the task and would stare at the screen until they found the correct shape.

Pay attention to what you call flexibility: it is not tied with motor control

A different inhibition test is the ‘detour’. In this test, one must walk around a clear tube to reach the food inside. It is not possible to just walk straight up to the tube and try to get the food through it. However, grackles that scored higher on ‘detour” did not perform better on the go no-go’ self-control test. Claudia Wascher, Associate Professor at Anglia Ruskin University, says that “our results show that different tests which are commonly referred to as tests for self control actually assess different cognitive capabilities.”

The authors conclude that “detour” measures motor inhibition, stopping any movement that won’t be useful, and non self control which is the ability not to respond to something they see but wait for something else.

Computers are used by wild-caught birds to take part in tests

Two of the tests were conducted with grackles. It turned out that the training of this species to use computers is very different from the training of pigeons, which two of the authors, Benjamin Seitz (a doctoral student) and Aaron Blaisdell (a Professor at the University of California Los Angeles), already had extensive experience with.

Grackles seem gentler when pecking on the screen, and are less persistent if something goes wrong. It is still remarkable to me that we were able get birds to interact with these artificial touchscreens in the wild. However, the birds were more cautious about using the touchscreen than any other species we have tested,” says Seitz, the lead author. This unexpected obstacle led to the team documenting its trials and tribulations, and publishing a guide on how wild-caught birds can use touchscreens.

Are they able to use causal cognition?

Blaisdell also created a touchscreen computer test that could be used to determine if grackles use causal cognition in another experiment. It is possible that a species like the great-tailed grangle is successful because they use causal cognition in solving their foraging problems. This ability to infer cause-and-effect could help you solve problems faster and find better solutions. This could come in handy when they open food packages, or any other problems that may arise in urban environments.

The results were not conclusive due to the fact that the birds didn’t understand the question. Blaisdell notes that the greatest challenge in studying a new species is adapting a procedure that worked for one species, such a rat. This allows you to successfully get ‘inside’ the head of the new species, such a grackle. To determine which setup would be most useful for the grackles, the experimental design would have to be modified.

Learning more about how a flexible animal reacts to changing conditions can help conservation managers plan and assist in promoting flexibility in species that struggle in this rapidly changing environment. These questions are being investigated by the authors through long-term research on grackle.

The research was published in Peer Community JournalAnd Animal Behavior and Cognition.