Reacting to a changing world requires i

Self control is essential for 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 is involved when learning to change a preference. “The grackles are likely inhibiting themselves from choosing the previously rewarded option so they can instead choose the other option, which is now the only option that has food in it”, says Corina Logan, a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and lead author.

When using a newer measure of flexibility – the time it takes to switch to trying to solve a new option on a puzzlebox after previously succeeding on a different option – the relationship was the opposite: grackles who were faster to switch to a new option were slower to inhibit 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 is a postdoctoral researcher at University of California Santa Barbara. She noticed differences in the strategies used in the computer ‘go-no-go’ test. “It was obvious that some birds were content to be rewarded inconsistently, so they pecked at anything that appeared on the screen. Others, on the other hand, seemed to have learned the task and would simply stare at the screen until the correct shape appeared.

Be careful what you call it: Flexibility is not synonymous with motor control

A different inhibition test, the ‘detour’ test, where one has to walk around to the side of a clear plastic tube to reach the food from the tube’s opening rather than walking straight up to it and trying to get the food through the plastic, is commonly thought to measure self control. However, grackles that scored higher on ‘detour” did not perform better on the go no-go self control test. “Our results show that different tests, which are widely referred to as tests of self control actually assess different cognitive abilities,” says co-author Claudia Wascher, an Associate Professor at Anglia Ruskin University.

The authors conclude that ‘detour’ measures motor inhibition, stopping a movement that won’t be useful, and not self control, which is the ability to withhold a response toward something they see and instead wait for something that comes later.

Computers are used to test wild-caught birds

Two of the tests were conducted with grackles being taught to use computers by the researchers. It turns out that training this species to use a computer is very different from training pigeons and rats – species that 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. “That we were able to get birds caught in the wild to interact with these very artificial touchscreens is still amazing to me, but the birds were more apprehensive with using the touchscreen than other species we’ve tested,” says lead author Seitz. 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 successful species, such as the great tailed grackle, uses causal cognition to solve its foraging problems. The ability to infer cause from effect could allow you to solve problems faster, and help you find better alternatives. This could be helpful when they open food packages, or any other problems that may arise in urban environments.

Results were inconclusive, potentially because the birds didn’t understand the question. “The greatest challenge when studying a new species is to adapt a procedure that has worked on one species, such as a rat, to successfully get ‘inside the head’ of the new species, such as a grackle”, notes Blaisdell. To determine which setup would be most useful for the grackles, the experimental design must be modified.

Where can I go from here?

Understanding how a flexible species responds to changing environments can help to inform conservation management plans. It can also help to learn how to encourage flexibility in species that are facing difficulties in this rapidly changing world. These questions are being investigated by the authors through long-term research on grackle.

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Original publications

Blaisdell, A., Seitz, B., Rowney, C., Folsom, M., MacPherson, M., Deffner, D., Logan, C.J.
Do more flexible individuals rely on causal cognition more? Great-tailed grackles: Intervention or observation in causal inference
Peer Community Journal, Volume 1 (2021), article  no. e50, DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.44/

Logan, C.J., McCune, K.B., MacPherson, M., Johnson-Ulrich, Z., Rowney, C., Seitz, B., Blaisdell, A.P., Deffner, D., Wascher, C.A.F.
Are more flexible people also better at inhibitions?
Animal Behavior and Cognition, 9(1) (2022), 14-36. February 2022, DOI: 10.26451/abc.09.01.03.2022

Sevchik, A., Logan. C.J., McCune, K.B., Blackwell, A., Rowney, C., & Lukas, D.
To determine potential biases in dispersal, we investigated the genetic differences in sex in great-tailed grangles in Tempe, Arizona.
Animal Behavior and Cognition, 9(1), 37-52. February 2022, DOI: 10.26451/abc.09.01.04.2022