ArticlePeerJ2016
Behavioral flexibility and problem solving in an invasive bird.
Article in PeerJ, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analytic techniques reveal that corvid causal reasoning in the Aesop's Fable paradigm is driven by trial-and-error learning.Animal cognition · 2018Pooled it
- Linking personality and cognition: a meta-analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- Beyond criterion: cognitive flexibility in wild striated caracaras.Biology letters · 2025Article
- The role of climate change and niche shifts in divergent range dynamics of a sister-species pair.Peer community journal · 2023Article
- Article
- Animal Creativity as a Function of Behavioral Innovation and Behavior Flexibility in Problem-solving Situations.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2022Article
- Great-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) as a tolerant host of avian malaria parasites.PloS one · 2022Article
- Performance of Azure-winged magpies in Aesop's fable paradigm.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- An integrative understanding of comparative cognition: lessons from human brain evolution.Integrative and comparative biology · 2020Review
- Behavioral flexibility: A review, a model, and some exploratory tests.Learning & behavior · 2020Review
- Differences in persistence between dogs and wolves in an unsolvable task in the absence of humans.PeerJ · 2018Article
- Are some individuals generally more behaviorally plastic than others? An experiment with sailfin mollies.PeerJ · 2018Article
- Article
- How far will a behaviourally flexible invasive bird go to innovate?Royal Society open science · 2016Article
- Eurasian jays do not copy the choices of conspecifics, but they do show evidence of stimulus enhancement.PeerJ · 2016Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Behavioral flexibility is considered an important trait for adapting to environmental change, but it is unclear what it is, how it works, and whether it is a problem solving ability. I investigated behavioral flexibility and problem solving experimentally in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird species and thus a likely candidate for possessing behavioral flexibility. Grackles demonstrated behavioral flexibility in two contexts, the Aesop's Fable paradigm and a color association test. Contrary to predictions, behavioral flexibility did not correlate across contexts. Four out of 6 grackles exhibited efficient problem solving abilities, but problem solving efficiency did not appear to be directly linked with behavioral flexibility. Problem solving speed also did not significantly correlate with reversal learning scores, indicating that faster learners were not the most flexible. These results reveal how little we know about behavioral flexibility, and provide an immense opportunity for future research to explore how individuals and species can use behavior to react to changing environments.
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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.