SynthesisPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2025
How does cognition determine an individual's fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals.
Synthesis in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 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
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- How does cognition determine an individual's fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Neuroactive Pollution Disrupts Cognition in Fish by Causing Sex-Specific Effects on Spatial Learning.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Linking social attention to reproductive state and future reproduction in female monkeys.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2026Article
- Demonstrating the reproductive consequences of cognition: learning from experience.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The evolutionary puzzle of cognition: challenges and insights from individual-based studies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Linking individual fitness to the evolution of cognition.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Selection shapes diverse animal minds.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
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
Recent efforts to understand the evolution of cognition have adopted a within-species approach where cognitive performance, and its effects on behaviour, is correlated with fitness benefits and, if related, is assumed to be selected for. We reviewed 45 studies taking this approach, involving 26 species and describing 211 relationships between behavioural measures of cognition and fitness, to explore broader patterns underlying the evolution of cognition. First, we explored patterns in the strength and direction of selection. We found generally weak support for a relationship between cognition and fitness, with >70% of raw published relationships being statistically non-significant, with an even smaller likelihood once co-variates were accounted for. Where significant relationships were found, they were predominantly, but not exclusively, positive, with individuals exhibiting faster learning or more accurate memory also displaying greater (proxy) fitness. Second, we tested how selection might act under different circumstances. A relationship with fitness was more likely when general, rather than specific cognitive entities were considered, and when the fitness measure corresponded to survival rather than reproductive output. Consequently, the study of within-species cognitive evolution remains in its early stages, with evidence that is both incomplete and inconclusive. However, it potentially offers a powerful opportunity to explore the structure of cognition, trade-offs, constraints and the way that it links to behaviours.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Selection shapes diverse animal minds'.
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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.