Predictability as a personality trait: consistent differences in intraindividual behavioral variation

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Ethology
• Behavioral ecology

Background:

• Most behavioral variation occurs within individuals, yet this intraindividual variation (IIV) is often overlooked.
• Individual behavioral plasticity, or consistent differences in responsiveness, is a recent area of interest.
• Understanding IIV is crucial for addressing proximate and ultimate questions in animal behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the predictability of behavior within individual animals.
• To determine if behavioral predictability is a repeatable characteristic.
• To explore intraindividual variation (IIV) as a significant, yet understudied, aspect of animal behavior.

Main Methods:

• Repeatedly scored undisturbed activity of 30 adult male mosquitofish over 132 days.
• Collected multiple observations per fish to assess behavioral consistency.
• Analyzed activity data accounting for individual trends and fine-scale temperature variations.

Main Results:

• Found significant evidence of behavioral predictability within individuals.
• Demonstrated that some individuals were consistently more predictable in their behavior than others.
• Established repeatability of intraindividual variation (IIV) after controlling for other factors.

Conclusions:

• Behavioral predictability is a repeatable characteristic of individual animals.
• Intraindividual variation (IIV) represents a previously unconsidered axis of consistent behavioral variation.
• Individual differences in predictability may extend to morphological and physiological traits.