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

养育行为是许多生物体的一个重要特征，它表现出一种奇怪的模式——父母个体往往对各种不同的条件（如季节、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，但也表现出一贯不同的照顾水平。个体照顾的差异可能是由于寻找食物的认知技能的差异。该项目将利用野生家麻雀（Passer domesticus）种群来衡量个体之间的差异和个体内部的护理调整。顶点实验将为受试者提供一系列的觅食测试，以评估个体的觅食技能。由此产生的数据将验证这样一种观点，即在新的觅食任务中表现良好的个体表现出更高水平的关怀。该实验将首次从自由生活的动物身上提供证据，证明认知能力会影响亲代照顾的个体差异。这将促进我们对亲代行为多样性的理解，以及表现出关爱的动物群体（包括人类）的认知进化。这些发现还可能为一些动物，特别是入侵的家雀，成功适应人类引起的栖息地变化的机制提供洞见。最后，该项目将加强对有才华的青年科学家的概念和经验训练。它将为来自不同背景的本科生提供指导机会；这些学生将在实地环境中体验科学方法，学习研究行为的现代技术，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.