Meeting Abstract

62.3  Sunday, Jan. 5 14:00  Cognitive performance predicts strength of sexual preference in a songbird ANDERSON, RC*; NOWICKI, S; Duke Univ.; Duke Univ. rindy1@gmail.com

Understanding variation in female mating preferences is a central issue in behavioral ecology. In songbirds, female mate choice is influenced by male song qualities. Female assessment of male song is, in part, a cognitive task: preferences are the result of learning, memory and comparative evaluation processes. Developmental and environmental factors have been shown to influence various aspects of cognition in birds, suggesting mechanisms by which song preferences and other cognitive abilities could become associated. We tested whether variation in the strength of female song preference, which may reflect ability to assess song quality, is related to problem solving ability. We measured preference for local versus foreign song in wild-captured female swamp sparrows using an operant design where females indicated song preference by triggering playback of preferred songs. We then tested their performance on a battery of cognitive tasks measuring motor learning, color association, reversal learning, spatial learning, and inhibitory control. Females preferred local over foreign song but varied in the strength of this preference. Choosiness for local song correlated with the speed at which females learned to associate a particular color with food; choosier females solved the task in fewer trials. Performance on a task measuring inhibitory control has been shown to predict song repertoire size in male song sparrows (faster learners had larger repertoires). We found that choosier females required more trials to solve this task. Females did not show consistent performance across cognitive tasks. Further work is needed to understand the mechanisms that may link female mating preferences with other cognitive abilities.