Cognitive performance is linked to group size and affects fitness in Australian magpies.

ABSTRACT: The social intelligence hypothesis states that the demands of social life drive cognitive evolution. This idea receives support from comparative studies that link variation in group size or mating systems with cognitive and neuroanatomical differences across species, but findings are contradictory and contentious. To understand the cognitive consequences of sociality, it is also important to investigate social variation within species. Here we show that in wild, cooperatively breeding Australian magpies, individuals that live in large groups show increased cognitive performance, which is linked to increased reproductive success. Individual performance was highly correlated across four cognitive tasks, indicating a 'general intelligence factor' that underlies cognitive performance. Repeated

SUBMITTER: Ashton BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5815499 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature