Meeting Abstract
Cognitive performance varies between species, and differences in life history characteristics may explain much of that variation. We compare variation in cognitive flexibility and problem solving in two live-bearing poeciliid fish species with different mating systems and invasive tendencies using the detour paradigm, in which individuals must innovate to circumnavigate a transparent barrier to reach a target. Gambusia affinis are highly invasive fish with exclusively coercive males, whereas Limia perugiae are noninvasive with polymorphic male mating phenotypes. We tested fish in a transparent-barrier detour maze with a female conspecific or predator lure target and in an opaque-barrier control. Performance in the maze was analyzed across species, sexes, and detour contexts for likelihood to solve and time measures for motivation and solving speed. We found no species difference in likelihood to solve or solving speed; however, G. affinis fish reached the barrier faster than L. perugiae, and both species reached the barrier fastest with a predator target. While neither species demonstrated sex differences in solving speed, G. affinis males were significantly more likely than females to solve both transparent detour contexts. Motivation to reach the barrier did not predict solving speed; yet we found a context and sex-dependent correlation between baseline anxiety/exploration in G. affinis males but not females. Specifically, high anxiety correlated with slow solving speed in the opaque context but correlated with fast solving speed in the predator context. These data indicate species and sex-dependent variation in detour performance may be driven by distinct life history characteristics (mating systems and invasiveness) and modified by sex-biased patterns in dispersal and noncognitive behavior.
