DOI: 10.5061/dryad.mw6m905xh
title: Inhibitory control, exploration behaviour and manipulated ecological context are associated with foraging flexibility in the great tit

description: ​​​​​Organisms are constantly under selection to respond effectively to
 diverse, sometimes rapid, changes in their environment, but not all
 individuals are equally plastic in their behaviour. Although cognitive
 processes and personality are expected to influence individual behavioural
 plasticity, the effects reported are highly inconsistent, which we
 hypothesise is because ecological context is usually not considered. We
 explored how one type of behavioural plasticity, foraging flexibility, was
 associated with inhibitory control (assayed using a detour-reaching task)
 and exploration behaviour in a novel environment (a trait closely linked
 to the fast-slow personality axis). We investigated how these effects
 varied across two experimentally manipulated ecological contexts, food
 value and predation risk. In the first phase of the experiment, we trained
 great tits Parus major to retrieve high value (preferred) food that was
 hidden in sand so that this became the familiar food source. In the second
 phase, we offered them the same familiar hidden food at the same time as a
 new alternative option that was visible on the surface, which was either
 high or low value, and under either high or low perceived predation risk.
 Foraging flexibility was defined as the proportion of choices made during
 four minute trials that were for the new alternative food source. Our
 assays captured consistent differences among individuals in foraging
 flexibility. Inhibitory control was associated with foraging flexibility -
 birds with high inhibitory control were more flexible when the alternative
 food was high value, suggesting they inhibited the urge to select the
 familiar food and instead selected the new food option. Exploration
 behaviour also predicted flexibility – fast explorers were more flexible,
 supporting the information gathering hypothesis. This tendency was
 especially strong under high predation risk, suggesting risk aversion also
 influenced the observed flexibility because fast explorers are risk prone
 and the new unfamiliar food was perceived to be the risky option. Thus,
 both behaviours predicted flexibility, and these links were at least
 partly dependent on ecological conditions. Our results demonstrate that an
 executive cognitive function (inhibitory control) and a behavioural assay
 of a well-known personality axis are both associated with individual
 variation in the plasticity of a key functional behaviour. That their
 effects on foraging flexibility were primarily observed as interactions
 with food value or predation risk treatments also suggests that the
 population level consequences of some behavioural mechanisms may only be
 revealed across key ecological conditions.
description: This dataset was collected in behavioural experiments in the
 aviary at University College Cork.  Great tits
 participated in an exploration behaviour assay, a detour-reaching task and
 a food choice task (four treatments). Videos were taken
 of all assays and behaviour was coded from these videos.
description: There is a Readme file to explain all the variables in the
 datasets.