ArticlePloS one2015
Taking the Operant Paradigm into the Field: Associative Learning in Wild Great Tits.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Quick on their paws: mice living in human-disturbed areas are faster problem-solvers than mice in strictly protected areas.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- The impact of landscape complexity and composition on honey bee visual learning.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Bold zebrafish (Danio rerio) learn faster in a classical associative learning task.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Animal personality in multiple stressor environments: the evolutionary ecology of among-individual differences in responses to stressor suites.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Review
- A novel methodological approach for group classification during fission of a semi-free-ranging group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata).American journal of primatology · 2023Article
- Environmental, individual and social traits of free-ranging raccoons influence performance in cognitive testing.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- Does trappability and self-selection influence cognitive performance?Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Exploring the interplay between natural and intersexual selection on the evolution of a cognitive trait.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Links between personality traits and problem-solving performance in zebra finches (Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Computerized assessment of dominance hierarchy in baboons (Papio papio).Behavior research methods · 2021Article
- Using touchscreen equipped operant chambers to study animal cognition. Benefits, limitations, and advice.PloS one · 2021Article
- Seeing red? Colour biases of foraging birds are context dependent.Animal cognition · 2020Article
- Childhood as a solution to explore-exploit tensions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization.Oecologia · 2020Article
- Multiple factors affect discrimination learning performance, but not between-individual variation, in wild mixed-species flocks of birds.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
- Exploring individual variation in associative learning abilities through an operant conditioning task in wild baboons.PloS one · 2020Article
- Captive jays exhibit reduced problem-solving performance compared to wild conspecifics.Royal Society open science · 2019Article
- Article
- Cognition in the field: comparison of reversal learning performance in captive and wild passerines.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Innovativeness as an emergent property: a new alignment of comparative and experimental research on animal innovation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Associative learning is essential for resource acquisition, predator avoidance and reproduction in a wide diversity of species, and is therefore a key target for evolutionary and comparative cognition research. Automated operant devices can greatly enhance the study of associative learning and yet their use has been mainly restricted to laboratory conditions. We developed a portable, weatherproof, battery-operated operant device and conducted the first fully automated colour-associative learning experiment using free-ranging individuals in the wild. We used the device to run a colour discrimination task in a monitored population of tits (Paridae). Over two winter months, 80 individuals from four species recorded a total of 5,128 trials. Great tits (Parus major) were more likely than other species to visit the devices and engage in trials, but there were no sex or personality biases in the sample of great tits landing at the devices and registering key pecks. Juveniles were more likely than adults to visit the devices and to register trials. Individuals that were successful at solving a novel technical problem in captivity (lever-pulling) learned faster than non-solvers when at the operant devices in the wild, suggesting cross-contextual consistency in learning performance in very different tasks. There was no significant effect of personality or sex on learning rate, but juveniles' choice accuracy tended to improve at a faster rate than adults. We discuss how customisable automated operant devices, such as the one described here, could prove to be a powerful tool in evolutionary ecology studies of cognitive traits, especially among inquisitive species such as great tits.
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