ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2014
Sex and boldness explain individual differences in spatial learning in a lizard.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Linking personality and cognition: a meta-analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Pooled it
- Neuroactive Pollution Disrupts Cognition in Fish by Causing Sex-Specific Effects on Spatial Learning.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Could Spatial Learning in the Early Stages of Life Consistently Affect the Long-Term Memory of Leopard Geckos (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Prenatal conditions do not affect brain physiology and learning in a lizard.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Modulation by NPY/NPF-like receptor underlies experience-dependent, sexually dimorphic learning.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Exploratory behavior is associated with the cognitive speed in male chestnut thrushes.Current zoology · 2024Article
- Sex predicts response to novelty and problem-solving in a wild bird with female-biased sexual dimorphism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Territorial status is explained by covariation between boldness, exploration, and thermal preference in a colour polymorphic lizard.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Biological pest regulation can benefit from diverse predation modes.Royal Society open science · 2024Review
- Are lateralized and bold fish optimistic or pessimistic?Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Smarter in the city? Lizards from urban and semi-natural habitats do not differ in a cognitive task in two syntopic species.Current zoology · 2024Article
- Personality and cognition: shoal size discrimination performance is related to boldness and sociability among ten freshwater fish species.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Reaction to Novel Objects and Fecal Glucocorticoid Metabolite Levels in Two Species of Nocturnal Geckos.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- 'Do I know you?' Categorizing individuals on the basis of familiarity in kea (Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Fear of the new? Geckos hesitate to attack novel prey, feed near objects and enter a novel space.Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Are cognition and personality related in budgerigars?Current zoology · 2022Article
- Personality and social environment predict cognitive performance in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus).Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Predictors of individual variation in reversal learning performance in three-spined sticklebacks.Animal cognition · 2020Article
- Reduced exploration capacity despite brain volume increase in warm-acclimated common minnow.The Journal of experimental biology · 2020Article
- Male and female guppies differ in problem-solving abilities.Current zoology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Understanding individual differences in cognitive performance is a major challenge to animal behaviour and cognition studies. We used the Eastern water skink (Eulamprus quoyii) to examine associations between exploration, boldness and individual variability in spatial learning, a dimension of lizard cognition with important bearing on fitness. We show that males perform better than females in a biologically relevant spatial learning task. This is the first evidence for sex differences in learning in a reptile, and we argue that it is probably owing to sex-specific selective pressures that may be widespread in lizards. Across the sexes, we found a clear association between boldness after a simulated predatory attack and the probability of learning the spatial task. In contrast to previous studies, we found a nonlinear association between boldness and learning: both 'bold' and 'shy' behavioural types were more successful learners than intermediate males. Our results do not fit with recent predictions suggesting that individual differences in learning may be linked with behavioural types via high-low-risk/reward trade-offs. We suggest the possibility that differences in spatial cognitive performance may arise in lizards as a consequence of the distinct environmental variability and complexity experienced by individuals as a result of their sex and social tactics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.