Dissertation Research: The links between cognitive ability and individual variation in parental behavior

育儿行为是许多生物体中的一个重要特征，它表现出一种奇怪的模式--个体父母往往对不同的条件(如季节的时间、后代的数量和年龄，以及其他照顾者的行为)做出灵活的反应，但也表现出始终如一的不同水平的照顾。在照顾方面的个体差异可能是由于寻找食物的认知技能的不同。该项目将使用野生家雀(帕斯特家雀)来衡量个体之间的差异和个体内的护理调整。顶石实验将为受试者提供一系列觅食测试，以评估个体的觅食技能。由此产生的数据将检验这样一种观点，即在新的觅食任务中表现出色的个体表现出更高的关爱水平。这项实验将提供来自自由生活的动物的第一个证据，证明认知能力影响父母照顾的个体差异。这将促进我们对父母行为的多样性以及包括人类在内的表现出照顾的动物群体认知进化的理解。这些发现还可能为一些动物，特别是入侵的家雀，在适应人类引起的栖息地变化方面取得成功的机制提供洞察。最后，该项目将加强对一位有才华的青年科学家的概念和经验的培训。它将为来自不同背景的本科生提供指导机会；这些学生将在现场环境中体验科学方法，学习现代行为研究技术，并获得统计分析方面的专业知识。

Parenting behavior, an important trait in many organisms, exhibits a curious pattern - individual parents are often flexible in response to variable conditions (e.g., time of season, number and age of offspring, and the behavior of other caregivers), yet also exhibit consistently different levels of care. Individual differences in care could be due to differences in cognitive skill at finding food. This project will measure between-individual differences and within-individual adjustments in care using a wild population of house sparrows (Passer domesticus). A capstone experiment will provide subjects with an array of foraging tests allowing assessment of individual food-finding skills. The resulting data will test the idea that individuals who perform well on novel foraging tasks exhibit higher levels of care. The experiment would provide the first evidence from free-living animals that cognitive abilities impact individual variation in parental care. This would advance our understanding of diversity in parental behavior and the evolution of cognition in animal groups exhibiting care, including humans. The findings also may provide insight into the mechanisms leading to the success of some animals, especially the invasive house sparrow, at adapting to human-induced changes in habitat. Finally, this project will enhance the conceptual and empirical training of a talented young scientist. It will provide opportunities to mentor undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds; these students will experience the scientific method in a field setting, learn modern techniques in studying behavior, and gain expertise in statistical analysis.