Are comparable studies really comparable? Suggestions from a problem-solving experiment on urban and rural great tits

Area of Science:

• Comparative Cognition
• Animal Behaviour
• Avian Ecology

Background:

• Cognitive abilities are frequently compared within and between species.
• Habitat effects on cognition are often studied, with an assumption that urban animals outperform rural ones.
• Great tits (Parus major) are a model species for studying cognitive traits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare problem-solving abilities between urban and rural great tits.
• To compare great tit performance with previously published studies.
• To assess learning abilities and correlations in problem-solving tasks.

Main Methods:

• Great tits were tested on problem-solving using a string-pulling and a plug-opening task.
• Performance was compared between urban and rural populations.
• Repeated sessions were used to assess learning, and correlations between tasks were examined.

Main Results:

• Great tits performed better in the string-pulling task (54% success) than in previous studies and better in the plug-opening task (70% success) than mountain chickadees.
• Solving latency decreased over sessions, indicating learning.
• No significant differences in problem-solving ability were found between urban and rural great tits.

Conclusions:

• Habitat type did not influence problem-solving performance in great tits.
• Marked differences in performance between study years suggest high sensitivity to experimental protocol variations.
• This highlights significant challenges in comparing cognitive performance data across different laboratories and underscores the replicability problem in animal behavior studies.