DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6hdr7srcf
title: Data and code from: Decision-making in the wild: Urgency and complexity drive feeding decision speed and the likelihood of revising a choice in a sex-dependent manner in great tit (<em>Parus major</em>) parents

description: Deciding which offspring to feed is one of the most critical decisions
 parents make, for both parental and offspring fitness. Despite knowing
 much about what choices parents make, we know little about how parents
 choose. What we do know about how the brain integrates sensory evidence
 when choosing between options comes from laboratory studies and models.
 However, such studies may not adequately reflect decisions made in
 nature—with real-world complexity and consequences. Our naturalistic
 experiment on decision-making in 62 wild Parus major parents overcomes
 this issue. Decision speed was impacted by whether parents chose to feed a
 typically-preferred chick or not, offspring starvation risk, decision
 complexity, and parental sex. Parents regularly moved food between chicks
 before committing, suggesting that parents were not confident or made a
 mistake. Such decision changes were predicted by similar factors as speed.
 After moving food, parents were more likely to continue gathering evidence
 post-decision, and their next decision was slower. These results
 demonstrate several factors impacting cognition, and perhaps
 metacognition, in wild birds. More broadly, our study demonstrates how
 crucial evolutionarily relevant experiments in natural settings are.
description: **GENERAL INFORMATION** This README.txt file was updated on 3 September
 2025. Paper associated with this archive: Caro, S.M., Villareal, R.M.,
 Velasco, A.C., van Mastrigt, T., van Oers, K., Hinde, C.A., & Hofmann,
 H., Decision-making in the wild: Urgency and complexity drive feeding
 decision speed and the likelihood of revising a choice in a sex-dependent
 manner in great tit (*Parus major*) parents. DOI: XXXXXXXXX (will be
 updated upon manuscript acceptance and publication)\ Corresponding author:
 Shana Caro:
 [shana_caro@post.harvard.edu](mailto:shana_caro@post.harvard.edu) Author
 contributions to data collection and code: SMC, ACV, TvM and CAH collected
 field data. ACV and RMV scored video data. SMC wrote the code. **ACCESS
 INFORMATION**  1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data or code: CC0
 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication  2. Data derived from
 other sources: NA  3. Recommended citation for this data/code archive:
 xxxxxxx **DATA & CODE FILE OVERVIEW** This data repository consist of
 two csv data files, twelve video files, and one R code file, and this
 README document, with the following data filenames and variables: Data
 files **1. "Data_Archive_for_Decision_Making_Manuscript.csv"**
 Description: This data file contains information on feeding visits made by
 great tit (*Paris major*) parents. Each row is a unique feeding visit
 where the parent brought a prey item back to the nest and then fed a
 chick. Variables 1. Nest_ID: which nest it is  2. Blinded.Film.File: the
 file name wherein the video of this feeding visit can be found 3.
 confidence.in.decision: whether or not parent changed their mind before
 feeding a chick - did parents place food in the mouth of chick A and then
 move it to chick B? This has two levels (did not move food, or moved
 food)  4. parental.decision.time: the time in seconds from when parents
 enter the nest to making a decision (placing food in the mouth of the
 chick that ultimately eats that food)  5. chicks.probed.after: Numerical
 measure of the number of different chicks that a parent dipped its beak
 into the mouth of, after feeding a chick on that same nest visit (possible
 range 0 to 7)  6. parent.sex: male or female.  7. prey.size: a categorical
 variable indicating whether prey items are big, medium, or small compared
 to the size of the adult's beak 8. number.of.begging.chicks.total:
 Numerical count of how many chicks begged on the feeding visit (range
 0-7)  9. fed.chick.beg.rank: the postural begging rank of the fed chick
 compared to its nest mates on that feeding visit, with 1 being highest and
 7 lowest. A score of 1 indicates that the chick was begging as much or
 more than its nestmates. Postural begging was coded from 0-3, with 3 being
 the highest intensity. 10. fed.chick.proximity.rank: the proximity rank of
 the fed chick compared to its nest mates on that feeding visit, with 1
 being closest to the parent and 7 being farthest from the parent (possible
 range 1 to 7). In analyses, ranks 5, 6, and 7 are rare enough that they
 are collapsed into the value 5 (thus, the range in analyses is 1-5). 11.
 fed.chick.weight.rank: the weight rank of the fed chick compared to its
 nest mates. Chicks were weighed prior to filming, and ranked by body size
 (in grams, range 1-7, with 1 being the heaviest chick and 7 being the
 lightest chick).  12. chicks.probed.before.numerical.confidence.measure:
 the number of different chicks that the parent placed food into the mouths
 of, before moving it to another chick (possible range 0 to 6). Chicks do
 not eat when probed. A value of zero indicates that the parent only placed
 food in the mouth of the chick that was ultimately fed. A value of two
 would indicate the parent placed food in the mouth of Chick A, moved it to
 Chick B, and finally moved it to Chick C, who ate the food. 13.
 13.supplementation.treatment: a categorical variable indicating whether
 parents received extra food (yes) or not (no) 14.
 14.chicks.probed.before.feeding.in.previous.choice: on the parent's
 previous visit, the number of different chicks that the parent placed food
 into the mouths of, before moving it to another chick (possible range 0 to
 6).  15. confidence.in.previous.choice: a categorical variable indicating
 whether, on the parent's previous feeding visit, any chick was probed
 (not confident) or not (confident)  16. unique.row.ID: a unique identifier
 for each feeding visit  17. Chick_ID: the identity of the chick that was
 fed on this feeding visit  18. Parent_ID: the identity of the parent on
 this feeding visit  19. visit.number.per.parent: the number of the
 parent's feeding visits scored. A value of 1 indicates it is the
 first visit scored for that parent, 2 indicates it is the second, etc. 
 20. nest.entrance.hour: the time (based on the timestamp in the video)
 that the parent entered the nest box  21. nest.entrance.minute: the time
 (based on the timestamp in the video) that the parent entered the nest box
 22. nest.entrance.second: the time (based on the timestamp in the video)
 that the parent entered the nest box  23. decision.hour: the time (based
 on the timestamp in the video) that the parent placed food in the mouth of
 the chick that was fed  24. decision.minute: the time (based on the
 timestamp in the video) that the parent placed food in the mouth of the
 chick that was fed  25. decision.second: the time (based on the timestamp
 in the video) that the parent placed food in the mouth of the chick that
 was fed  26. multiprey_yn: a categorical variable indicating whether the
 parent brought back a single prey item or multiple prey items. Visits with
 multiple prey items were excluded from this study 27.
 exclude.due.to.missing.data.or.obscured.view: a categorical variable
 indicating whether this feeding visit should be excluded (yes) or not (no)
 from analyses due to missing data from the camera being obscured during
 the visit. *Note: Missing values in the data are labeled NA. **2.
 "speediness.fitness.effects.csv"** Description: This data file
 contains information on chick mortality outcomes by nest and parents'
 mean decision speeds during feeding visits. Variables: 1) Supplemented: a
 categorical variable indicating whether parents received extra food
 (Supplemented) or not (Unsupplemented)  2) Nest: which nest it is  3)
 parent.sex: whether the row refers to the male or female of this nest  4)
 concatenated_ID: the identity of the parent 5) number.dead.by.day.7: the
 number of chicks that died in this nest between hatching (day 0) and day 7
 (range 0 to 5 chicks).  6) Individual.Mean.Speediness: the mean decision
 time in seconds for that individual bird, based on all its recorded
 feeding visits. Decision time is measured from when the adult enters the
 nest and can first observe the chicks to when it places food in the mouth
 of the chick that is ultimately fed.  7) any.mortality.by.day.7: a
 categorical variable indicating whether any chicks died (some dead chicks)
 or not (No mortality) in the first week after hatching 8)
 any.mortality.by.day.7.binomial: a binomial variable indicating whether
 any chicks died (1) or not (0) in the first week after hatching 9)
 number.dead.after.day.8: the number of chicks that died in this nest
 between filming day (day 8) and fledging (day 21) (range 0 to 7 chicks).
 10) any.mortality.by.day.8: a categorical variable indicating whether any
 chicks died (some dead chicks) or not (No mortality) in the time after
 filming before fledging 11) any.mortality.by.day.7.binomial: a binomial
 variable indicating whether any chicks died (1) or not (0) in the time
 after filming before fledging 12) change.in.brood.size: the difference in
 between a nest's original brood size (the number of chicks that
 hatched in that nest) and foster brood size (the number of chicks that
 were fostered into that nest for filming). Chicks remained in their
 fostered broods through fledging. A negative value indicates that the
 fostered brood was smaller than the original brood. A positive value
 indicates that the fostered brood was larger than the original brood
 (range -3 to +3 chicks). **3. Video Files** Twelve representative video
 files have been uploaded to the data depository. The file names follow the
 format letter_number, where the letter refers to the blinded nest and the
 number refers to the order of the video files. 1. a_2.AVI 2. aa_3.AVI 3.
 b_2.AVI 4. bb_2.AVI 5. c_2.AVI 6. cc_4.AVI 7. d_2.AVI 8. dd_2.AVI 9.
 e_4.AVI 10. ee_2.AVI 11. f_4.AVI 12. ff_2.AVI **4.
 "Code_Archive_for_Decision_Making_Manuscript.R"** Description: R
 code for all statistical analyses on decision speed, moving food, probing,
 and mortality inthe manuscript. The name and reason for each analysis is
 indicated with each model. The order of the code is 1) Load packages; 2)
 Import, clean, and transform data (e.g., rename factor levels or center
 and scale variables); 3) GLMER models for speed, moving food and probing;
 4) Path (PiecewiseSEM) Models; and 5) Fitness consequences. Code is
 annotated within the R code file. For questions about code, please contact
 [shana_caro@post.harvard.edu](mailto:shana_caro@post.harvard.edu).
 SOFTWARE VERSIONS Analysis is done in R, version 4.4.0 (2024-04-24) --
 "Puppy Cup" Packages with versions used in published analyses:
 lme4 1.1-35.3, lmerTest 3.1-3, ggplot2 3.5.1, piecewiseSEM 2.3.0, semPlot
 1.1.6, lavaanPlot 0.8.1, lavaan 0.6-17, ape_5.8, performance_0.12.2,
 effects_4.2-2, carData_3.0-5, lubridate_1.9.3, forcats_1.0.0,
 stringr_1.5.1, purrr_1.0.2, readr_2.1.5, tidyr_1.3.1, tibble_3.2.1,
 tidyverse_2.0.0, readxl_1.4.3, corrplot_0.92, dplyr_1.1.4, caper_1.0.3,
 mvtnorm_1.2-4,MASS_7.3-60.2, Matrix_1.7-0 **Funding and Animal Ethics
 statements** Funding: This research was supported by a WIAS fellowship
 awarded to SMC at Wageningen University and SEX SEL-VAR project number
 334544 funded by a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant from the European
 Commission (FP7) awarded to CAH. This work was also funded by a University
 of Texas at Austin Stengl-Wyer Postdoctoral Fellowship for SMC and a
 Stengl-Wyer InSTInCT REU Fellowship to RMV. We thank NIOO-KNAW for
 additional funding. Ethics: Permission to do fieldwork in the Boslust
 forest was granted by Stichting Geldersch Landschap en Kasteelen.
 Permission for animal experiments was granted by Central Authority for
 Scientific Procedures on Animals (CCD) of the Netherlands under project
 number AVD-801002017831 to KVO.