The benefits of sociality: understanding the relationship between cooperation, cognition and fitness

合作可能会带来独特的认知挑战。个人的行为为他人提供了健康的好处，使自己面临风险。因此，需要监测群体成员的行为，认识到合适的合作伙伴，并作出相应的行为调整，以最大限度地提高合作的好处，可能是社会进化的一个重要驱动力。理解认知与合作之间的关系的意义在于它如何影响个体的适应性和合作的稳定性。该项目旨在通过对野生合作鸟类的认知能力的选择性益处进行首次全面研究来揭示这种关系。

Cooperation may present unique cognitive challenges. Individuals perform behaviours that provide fitness benefits to others, exposing themselves to risk. The need to monitor the behaviour of group members, recognise suitable cooperative partners, and make corresponding behavioural adjustments to maximize the benefits of cooperation, may therefore be an important driver of social evolution. The relevance of understanding the relationship between cognition and cooperation is in how it affects the fitness of individuals and the stability of cooperation. This project aims to unveil this relationship by conducting one of the first comprehensive studies of the selective benefits of cognitive ability in a wild, cooperative bird species.