Is Social Rank Correlated With Cognitive Ability in Black-capped Chickadees?
Abstract
Traditionally, dominant animals have been regarded as better competitors in all aspects of life, including cognition. However, the survival and reproductive advantages of being a dominant chickadee are surprisingly modest. It is possible that subordinate individuals compensate for the disadvantages of a lower rank with better cognitive abilities. If dominants are monopolizing prime food sources, subordinates may have developed better associative learning skills by learning to associate novel types of stimuli with food rewards. In this thesis, I asked whether dominance rank is correlated with cognitive ability in Black-capped Chickadees. I determined dominance rank in six flocks of six chickadees, and then tested each bird individually on two different associative learning tasks. I used artificial trees with holes that held food reward in both tasks. The first task was a colour associative learning task, in which birds learned that only holes marked with a specific colour contained a food reward. The second task was a spatial associative learning task, in which birds learned that only holes in specific locations contained a food reward. There were no differences in associative learning or spatial memory between dominant and subordinate birds, showing no support for the hypothesis that there are differences in learning and memory between chickadees of different dominance ranks.