Learning and personality types are related in cavies (Cavia aperea)

The evolution and maintenance of consistent individual differences, so called animal personalities, have attracted much research interest over the past decades. Variation along common personality traits, such as boldness or exploration, is often associated with risk-reward trade-offs. Individuals that are bolder and hence take more risks may be more successful in acquiring resources over the short term. Cautious individuals taking fewer risks may, on the other hand, live longer, but may also gather fewer resources over the short term. According to recent theory, individual differences in personality may be functionally related to individual differences in cognitive performance (i.e., the way in which individuals acquire or use information). Individual differences in the acquisition speed of cognitively challenging tasks are often associated with a speed-accuracy trade-off. Accuracy can be improved by investing more time in the decision-making process or, conversely, decisions can be made more quickly at the cost of making more mistakes. Hence, the speed-accuracy trade-off often involves a risk-reward trade-off. We tested whether 3 personality traits, boldness, activity, and aggressiveness, are correlated with individual learning, associative learning speed, and behavioral flexibility as assessed by reversal learning in wild cavies (Cavia aperea). We found strong positive relationships between all personality traits and learning speed, whereas flexibility was negatively associated with aggressiveness. Our results support the hypothesis that performance reflects individual differences in personality in a predictable way.