DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ffbg79d2g
title: Effects of behavioural types on the problem-solving performance of wild house mice under controlled and semi-natural conditions

description: Animals often face challenges that require them to come up
 with solutions to novel problems or to find new solutions to
 existing ones; i.e., they need to innovate. However, not all
 individuals in a population are equally likely to solve novel
 problems, and it is unclear which individual characteristics make
 a successful innovator. Theoretical frameworks suggest the
 importance of intrinsic (e.g., individual characteristics)
 and extrinsic (e.g., study condition) factors on
 problem-solving performance. Such frameworks have been
 empirically tested in model, highly neophobic species, leaving
 the generality of these processes unclear. We examined whether
 behavioural traits such as exploration and risk-taking are linked
 to problem-solving behaviour, using two replicated populations
 (N=121) of wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) living under
 semi-natural conditions. There, we presented a battery of four
 problem-solving setups that individuals could access voluntarily,
 and we tested the mice for risk-taking and exploration.
 Furthermore, after acclimatising to cages, we tested a subset
 (N=50) of the same individuals in controlled conditions, to
 validate the cross-context stability of cognitive performance and
 potential influences of behaviours. We placed single individuals
 overnight in arenas containing another four novel
 problem- solving setups. Contrasting most existing literature, we
 found no direct effects of behavioural type on the likelihood to
 problem-solve in either condition. However, there was an indirect
 effect, with shyer individuals visiting the problems more, which
 improved their likelihood of solving them. Additionally, mice
 were more likely to solve alone, and individuals were not
 consistent across conditions. Our findings suggest
 that exploration and risk-taking do not affect the ability to
 problem-solve across different conditions, but impact the
 non-cognitive steps that lead to the final performance. Also,
 individuals did not perform consistently across conditions,
 questioning the ecological validity of measures taken under
 controlled, artificial conditions when they do not reflect
 the animals’ natural experience.
description: # Effects of behavioural types on the problem-solving performance of wild
 house mice under controlled and semi-natural conditions
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ffbg79d2g](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ffbg79d2g) Data and code related to the manuscript "Impact of personality on the problem-solving performance of wild house mice under controlled and semi-natural conditions." ## Description of the data and file structure There are three files accompanying this manuscript. * "OpenField.csv", containing data produced during the Open Field test of the mice. It contains the following columns: * Trial: the ascending number of the trial analysed in the system * id: the 3- or 4- digit id of the individuals * idshort: the 6-digit id of the individuals * distance: the total distance covered by the individuals in the Open Field (cm) over 300 s * velocity: the average velocity (cm/s) * timecenter: time spent in the central zone of the Open Field (s) * pctcenter: percentage of time spent in the center * notmoving: percentage of time spent not moving * moving: percentage of time spent moving * room: the enclosure the animals lived * file: the source videofile for the analysis * trial: the first or second trial for every individual * "ProblemSolvingArenas.csv", containing data produced during the testing of mice in the arenas.\ It contains the following columns: * Day: the ascending day that each individual was tested * ID: the 3- or 4- digit id for every individual * Arena: the specific arena that each individual was tested * Sex: the sex of every individual * Tube: the binary value of eating the mealworm/tube control (1: the control was eaten, 0: the control was not eaten) * Petri: the binary value of eating the mango/petridish control (1: the control was eaten, 0: the control was not eaten) * LegoHouse: the binary value of solving the LegoHouse problem (1: the problem was solved, 0: the problem was not solved) * TrapDoor: the binary value of solving the TrapDoor problem (1: the problem was solved, 0: the problem was not solved) * LiftTop: the binary value of solving the LiftTop problem (1: the problem was solved, 0: the problem was not solved) * FlipTube: the binary value of solving the FlipTube problem (1: the problem was solved, 0: the problem was not solved) * Score: The number of problems solved (excluding controls, range 0-4) * distance.avg: the average distance in the open field test, see OpenField.csv file * timecenter.avg: the average time in the center of the open field test, see OpenField.csv file * monitoring: the monitoring each individual was RFID tagged (M0 for founders, M2 and forward for all other individuals) * "ProblemSolvingFull_mothers.csv", containing the compiled data for all individuals studied in this manuscript. It contains the following columns: * id: the full id of each individual * room: the enclosure each individual lived * no: a number for easy sorting of individuals * sex: the sex of each individual * idshort: the 6-digit form of the id of each individual * monitoring: the monitoring each individual was RFID tagged (M0 for founders, M2 and forward for all other individuals) * distance.avg: the average distance in the open field test, see OpenField.csv file * timecenter.avg: the average time in the center of the open field test, see OpenField.csv file * reads: the total number of reads at the RFID antennas throughout the problem-solving experiment * arena_no_prob: number of problems solved in the arena * room_no_prob: number of problems solved in the enclosures * room_solver: a binary value whether this individual was a solver in the enclosures * arena_solver: a binary value whether this individual was a solver in the arenas * tube: whether this individual was ever recorded at the entrance (tube) of the problem-solving box * box: whether this individual was ever recorded inside the problem-solving box * setup: whether this individual was ever recorded interacting with a problem-solving setup * personality: whether this individual has personality data, see OpenField.csv file * in_arena: whether this individual participated in the Arena experiment * latency: the latency to leave the cage in the arena * scaled.reads: the "reads" column, scaled * born: whether an individual was born in the enclosures (value=1) or was in the founding generation (value=0) * distance.group: the 16 individuals with the highest average distance in the Open Field belonged to the group "high", and the 16 with the lowest in the group "low" * timecenter.group: the 16 individuals with the highest average time in the center of the Open Field belonged to the group "high", and the 16 with the lowest in the group "low" * reads1: the number of RFID antenna reads in the trials of the 1st problem-solving setup * reads2: the number of RFID antenna reads in the trials of the 2nd problem-solving setup * reads3: the number of RFID antenna reads in the trials of the 3rd problem-solving setup * reads4: the number of RFID antenna reads in the trials of the 4th problem-solving setup * solver1: a binary value whether this individual was a solved the 1st problem-solving setup * solver2: a binary value whether this individual was a solved the 2nd problem-solving setup * solver3: a binary value whether this individual was a solved the 3rd problem-solving setup * solver4: a binary value whether this individual was a solved the 4th problem-solving setup * mother: ID of the mother of the individual * "NA" throught the datasets signify the absence of data for that particular individual for a specific attribute (e.g. an individual who did not participate in the open field test would have NAs in the corresponding columns). ## Code/Software The accompanying R script "Revised_Personality_Problem-solving_manuscript_script.R" runs all analyses and plots reported in the submitted manuscript. All data files should be in the same directory, which is to be specified in line 3 of the script. All necessary packages are loaded in lines 6-23 of the script.