DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Sociability and reproductive success in brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater)

在人类内部，人们普遍认为早期人格的差异决定了行为的发展。例如，外向的人通常寻求与不熟悉的人互动，而内向的人总是寻求与更熟悉的人互动。因此，人格可能会通过让一个人从小接触不同的社会经验来塑造一个人的行为发展。最近，越来越多的人意识到动物也像人类一样具有个性特征。拟议中的研究将调查性格特征、社交能力的变化如何影响褐头牛头鸟（Molothrus ater）的行为发展。像许多其他物种一样，牛郎鸟依靠社会互动来学习新的技能和行为。社交能力描述了一个人寻求与他人互动的倾向。更善于交际的牛郎鸟会比不善于交际的牛郎鸟更经常地接近和互动更多的个体。两项研究将探讨：1)社交能力的变化预测了幼年牛郎鸟的成虫行为的发展；2)早期与多或少社交的成虫相处的经历是否影响了幼年牛郎鸟人格特征的发展。在这两项研究中，将使用一种新的基于RFID的视频系统来识别个体并记录它们长时间的社会行为。这个系统将允许以一种研究人员以前无法获得的方式测量社交性和社会行为的细节。统计时间序列模型可以用来揭示一个人的社交能力如何反映生命第一年新行为的发展。在第二个实验中，统计时间序列模型将被用来揭示与更善于交际的成年鸟相处的经验是否能预测幼年牛郎鸟在一年内出现的成年行为。这些结果将提供关于早期人格差异如何通过决定个体如何互动和向他人学习来塑造行为发展的见解。数据将存储在http://datadryad.org/上

Within humans it is widely recognized that early differences in personality shape the development of behavior. For instance, extraverts commonly seek out interactions with unfamiliar individuals, while introverts consistently seek out interaction with fewer more familiar individuals. Thus, personality may shape an individual's behavioral development by exposing them to different social experiences from an early age. Recently there has been increasing awareness that like humans, animals also possess personality traits. The proposed research will investigate how variation in a personality trait, sociability, shapes behavioral development in Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Cowbirds, like many other species, rely on social interaction in order to learn new skills and behaviors. Sociability describes an individual's tendency to seek out interaction with others. More sociable cowbirds will approach and interact with more individuals more often than less sociable cowbirds. Two studies will investigate if: 1) Variation in sociability predicts the development of adult like behavior in juvenile cowbirds, and 2) if early experience with more or less sociable adults shapes the development of juvenile personality traits. A new RFID based video system will be used in both studies to identify individuals and record their social behaviors over long periods of time. This system will allow measurement of the details of sociability and social behavior in a way that was unavailable to researchers before. Statistical time series models can be implemented to uncover how an individual's sociability reflects the development of new behaviors over the first year of life. In the second experiment, statistical time series models will be used to uncover if experience with more sociable adults can predict the emergence of adult-like behavior within a juvenile cowbirds' first year. These results will provide insights into how early personality differences shape the development of behavior by determining how individuals interact and learn from others.Data will be stored and available at http://datadryad.org/