Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

Active explorers show low learning performance in a social insect.

Current Zoology 2017 October
An intriguing question in behavioral biology is whether consistent individual differences (called animal personalities) relate to variation in cognitive performance because commonly measured personality traits may be associated with risk-reward trade-offs. Social insects, whose learning abilities have been extensively characterized, show consistent behavioral variability, both at colony and at individual level. We investigated the possible link between personality traits and learning performance in the carpenter ant Camponotus aethiops . Exploratory activity, sociability, and aggression were assessed twice in ant foragers. Behaviors differed among individuals, they were partly repeatable across time and exploratory activity correlated positively with aggression. Learning abilities were quantified by differential conditioning of the maxilla-labium extension response, a task that requires cue perception and information storage. We found that exploratory activity of individual ants significantly predicted learning performance: "active-explorers" were slower in learning the task than "inactive-explorers". The results suggest for the first time a link between a personality trait and cognitive performance in eusocial insects, and that the underlying individual variability could affect colony performance and success.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app