SynthesisPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2012
Individual variation in cognitive performance: developmental and evolutionary perspectives.
Synthesis in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 122 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
122 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- What do zebra finches learn besides singing? Systematic mapping of the literature and presentation of an efficient associative learning test.Animal cognition · 2023Pooled it
- The repeatability of cognitive performance: a meta-analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Pooled it
- Chimpanzees demonstrate individual differences in social information use.Animal cognition · 2018Pooled it
- Article
- Differences in interactions between brain regions across personality types while learning in zebrafish (bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Is the Cognitive Ability of Fawn-Footed Mosaic-Tailed Rat Melomys cervinipes Offspring Related to Mothers' Care or Cognitive Abilities?Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2026Article
- Heads and tails of individual differences: the role of environmental complexity in cognitive development of juvenile lobsters.Animal cognition · 2026Article
- Associations of genetic polymorphisms with boldness, stress response, and route efficiency in homing pigeons (Columba livia).Physiology & behavior · 2026Article
- Generalist vs. specialist: cognition and behavioral flexibility in Gambusia across habitats.Animal cognition · 2026Article
- A panel of medaka isogenic lines suggests individual, seasonal, and sexual genetic variation ofFrontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Linking social attention to reproductive state and future reproduction in female monkeys.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2026Article
- Assessing Executive Cognitive Functions in Sheep: A Scoping Review of Recent Literature on Cognitive Tasks.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Inhibitory control tests in non-human animals: validity, reliability, and perspectives.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Social Interactions Are Related to Cognitive Development in Western Australian Magpie Fledglings.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Visual Discrimination Task in Guppies Using a Simultaneous Matching-to-Sample Procedure.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- How cognitively demanding is the urban niche? Reconsidering exaptation and habituation.Animal cognition · 2025Review
- Sex affects the network of covariances between cognitive, behavioral, and physiological traits in guppies.iScience · 2025Article
- A global survey on the associations between the lockdown group, free memory recall and emotional responses during the COVID-19 lockdown.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Individual differences in sociocognitive traits in semi-free-ranging rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).American journal of primatology · 2025Article
62 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Animal cognition experiments frequently reveal striking individual variation but rarely consider its causes and largely ignore its potential consequences. Studies often focus on a subset of high-performing subjects, sometimes viewing evidence from a single individual as sufficient to demonstrate the cognitive capacity of a species. We argue that the emphasis on demonstrating species-level cognitive capacities detracts from the value of individual variation in understanding cognitive development and evolution. We consider developmental and evolutionary interpretations of individual variation and use meta-analyses of data from published studies to examine predictors of individual performance. We show that reliance on small sample sizes precludes robust conclusions about individual abilities as well as inter- and intraspecific differences. We advocate standardization of experimental protocols and pooling of data between laboratories to improve statistical rigour. Our analyses show that cognitive performance is influenced by age, sex, rearing conditions and previous experience. These effects limit the validity of comparative analyses unless developmental histories are taken into account, and complicate attempts to understand how cognitive traits are expressed and selected under natural conditions. Further understanding of cognitive evolution requires efforts to elucidate the heritability of cognitive traits and establish whether elevated cognitive performance confers fitness advantages in nature.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.