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Author Reddon, A.R.; Hurd, P.L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Individual differences in cerebral lateralization are associated with shy-bold variation in the convict cichlid Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 77 Issue 1 Pages 189-193  
  Keywords animal personality; Archocentrus nigrofasciatus; cerebral lateralization; convict cichlid; life history strategy; shy-bold continuum  
  Abstract Cerebral lateralization, the preferential use of one hemisphere of the brain to perform certain cognitive functions, is a widespread and evolutionarily ancient adaptation. Lateralization appears to enhance cognitive capacity, yet substantial individual variation in the strength cerebral lateralization is apparent in all species studied so far. It is puzzling that cerebral lateralization, a seemingly advantageous trait, has not been driven to fixation. It has been suggested that variation in lateralization may be linked to individual variation in behaviour, which itself may be subject to disruptive selection. We examined the relation between cerebral lateralization and individual variation in boldness in the convict cichlid, Archocentrus nigrofasciatus. We show that convict cichlids that are more strongly lateralized when exploring a familiar environment, but not a novel one, are quicker to emerge from a shelter in a test for boldness. The possibility that cerebral lateralization is linked to life history strategy is discussed.  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5373  
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Author Kurvers, R.H.J.M.; Eijkelenkamp, B.; van Oers, K.; van Lith, B.; van Wieren, S.E.; Ydenberg, R.C.; Prins, H.H.T. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Personality differences explain leadership in barnacle geese Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 78 Issue 2 Pages 447-453  
  Keywords barnacle goose; boldness; Branta leucopsis; group behaviour; leadership; personality  
  Abstract Personality in animal behaviour describes the observation that behavioural differences between individuals are consistent over time and context. Studies of group-living animals show that movement order among individuals is also consistent over time and context, suggesting that some individuals lead and others follow. However, the relationship between leadership and personality traits is poorly studied. We measured several personality traits and leadership of individual barnacle geese, Branta leucopsis. We measured body size and scored the dominance of individuals living in a stable group situation before subjecting them to an open-field test, an activity test, a novel-object test, and a leadership test in which the order of the movement of individuals in pairs towards a feeding patch was scored. We found high repeatability for activity and novel-object scores over time. Leadership was strongly correlated with novel-object score but not with dominance rank, activity or exploration in an open field. These results provide evidence that leadership is closely related to some aspects of personality. Interestingly, an individual's arrival at the food patch was affected not only by the novel-object score of the focal individual, but also by the novel-object score of the companion individual, indicating that movement patterns of individuals living in groups are affected by the personality traits of other group members and suggesting that movement patterns of a group may be shaped by the mix of personality types present in the group.  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5172  
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Author Bergvall, U.A.; Schäpers, A.; Kjellander, P.; Weiss, A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Personality and foraging decisions in fallow deer, Dama dama Type Journal Article
  Year Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume In Press, Corrected Proof Issue Pages  
  Keywords antipredator behaviour; boldness; Dama dama; dominance; fallow deer; foraging; novelty; personality  
  Abstract Recent studies have examined the ecological and evolutionary bases for variation in animal personality. However, only a few such studies have examined how foraging parameters are influenced by different personality domains. In wild ungulates, the trade-off between the time spent on food intake and antipredator behaviour differs between individuals, but the underlying reason for this is not yet well understood. One possibility is that this trade-off reflects personality dimensions such as boldness. To relate foraging decisions to personality we measured personality and performed feeding experiments with familiar and novel food in familiar and novel situations. We measured personality traits in 15 tame fallow deer, using novel object tests (NO), behavioural observations (BO) and personality ratings (PR). Boldness dimensions were found using PR and NO, dominance dimensions were found using BO and PR, and a flexibility dimension was found using BO. Multitrait-multimethod analysis showed that similar dimensions were significantly correlated across different methods and that different dimensions were not significantly correlated, even if measured using the same method. We also found that novel food eaten in familiar situations and familiar food eaten in novel situations were strongly related to boldness but not dominance, flexibility or age. Thus the trade-off between the benefits of gaining more food and the costs of reduced vigilance or increased toxin ingestion reflect boldness. These findings highlight the nature of personality dimensions in ungulates and how boldness impacts foraging behaviour.  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5278  
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Author Riebli, T.; Avgan, B.; Bottini, A.-M.; Duc, C.; Taborsky, M.; Heg, D. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Behavioural type affects dominance and growth in staged encounters of cooperatively breeding cichlids Type Journal Article
  Year 2011 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 81 Issue 1 Pages 313-323  
  Keywords behavioural syndrome; body condition; Neolamprologus pulcher; personality; reserves; strategic growth; submission  
  Abstract In animals, behavioural properties such as aggressive propensity are often consistent over a life span, and they may form part of a behavioural syndrome. We studied how aggressive propensity influences dominance, contest behaviour and growth in the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher. We tested whether intrinsic aggressive propensity (1) influences dominance in paired contests, (2) causes different aggression levels in contests with partners matched for aggressive propensity compared to unmatched partners, and how it (3) affects growth rate in groups that were either matched or unmatched for aggressive propensity. Intrinsic aggressive propensity was first scored with a mirror test and classified as high, medium or low. Thereafter we tested fish with either high or low aggressive propensity with partners matched for size and either matched or unmatched for aggressive type in a paired contest for a shelter. We scored dominance, aggression and submission. As predicted, (1) dominance was more clearly established in unmatched than in matched contests and (2) individuals with high aggressive propensity launched more attacks overall than fish with low intrinsic aggressiveness, suggesting a higher propensity to escalate independently of winning or losing the paired contest. However, contrary to expectation, (3) individuals with low aggressiveness grew faster than aggressive ones in unmatched groups, whereas the opposite occurred in matched groups. This suggests that individuals with low aggressive propensity may benefit from conflict evasion, which might allow them to gain dominance in the future owing to larger body size.  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5319  
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Author h:, M.; Lévy, F.; Fortin, M.; Leterrier, C.; LansadLansade, L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Stress and temperament affect working memory performance for disappearing food in horses, Equus caballus Type Journal Article
  Year 2013 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 86 Issue 6 Pages 1233-1240  
  Keywords delayed-response task emotion; equid; Equus caballus; fearfulness; individual difference; personality; stress; temperament  
  Abstract In the present study, we sought to determine the influence of stress and temperament on working memory for disappearing food in horses. After assessment of five dimensions of temperament, we tested working memory of horses using a delayed-response task requiring a choice between two food locations. Delays ranging from 0 to 20 s were tested. The duration of working memory for disappearing food was first characterized without stressors (N = 26). The horses were then divided into two groups and their performance was assessed under stressful (exposure to acute stressors prior to testing, N = 12) or control conditions (N = 12). Results showed that the duration of working memory for disappearing food lasted at least 20 s under nonstressful conditions, and that under stressful conditions this duration lasted less than 12 s. This stress-induced impairment confirms in a nonrodent species that working memory performance is very sensitive to exposure to stressors. In addition, working memory performance in horses is influenced by the temperamental dimension of fearfulness according to the state of stress: fearful horses showed better performance under control conditions and worse performance under stressful conditions than nonfearful horses. These findings are discussed in the context of the Yerkes–Dodson law of stress and performance.  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5746  
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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Social cognition Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 103 Issue Pages 191-202  
  Keywords evolution; fitness; future research; personality; selective pressure; skill; social cognition  
  Abstract The social intelligence hypothesis argues that competition and cooperation among individuals have shaped the evolution of cognition in animals. What do we mean by social cognition? Here we suggest that the building blocks of social cognition are a suite of skills, ordered roughly according to the cognitive demands they place upon individuals. These skills allow an animal to recognize others by various means; to recognize and remember other animals' relationships; and, perhaps, to attribute mental states to them. Some skills are elementary and virtually ubiquitous in the animal kingdom; others are more limited in their taxonomic distribution. We treat these skills as the targets of selection, and assume that more complex levels of social cognition evolve only when simpler methods are inadequate. As a result, more complex levels of social cognition indicate greater selective pressures in the past. The presence of each skill can be tested directly through field observations and experiments. In addition, the same methods that have been used to compare social cognition across species can also be used to measure individual differences within species and to test the hypothesis that individual differences in social cognition are linked to differences in reproductive success.  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6025  
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Author Amici, F.; Widdig, A.; Lehmann, J.; Majolo, B. url  doi
openurl 
  Title A meta-analysis of interindividual differences in innovation Type Journal Article
  Year 2019 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 155 Issue Pages 257-268  
  Keywords age; bad competitor hypothesis; excess of energy hypothesis; innovation; interindividual differences; intraspecific variation; personality; rank; sex  
  Abstract The ability to innovate and the social transmission of innovations have played a central role in human evolution. However, innovation is also crucial for other animals, by allowing them to cope with novel socioecological challenges. Although innovation plays such a central role in animals' lives, we still do not know the conditions required for innovative behaviour to emerge. Here, we focused on interindividual differences in innovation by (1) extensively reviewing existing literature on innovative behaviour in animals and (2) quantitatively testing the different evolutionary hypotheses that have been proposed to explain interindividual variation in innovation propensity during foraging tasks. We ran a series of phylogenetically controlled mixed-effects meta-regression models to determine which hypotheses (if any) are supported by currently available empirical studies. Our analyses show that innovation is more common in individuals that are older and belong to the larger sex, but also in more neophilic and/or explorative individuals. Moreover, these effects change depending on the study setting (i.e. wild versus captive). Our results provide no clear support to the excess of energy or the bad competitor hypotheses and suggest that study setting and interindividual differences in traits related to personality are also important predictors of innovation.  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6589  
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Author König v. Borstel, U.; Pirsich, W.; Gauly, M.; Bruns, E. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Repeatability and reliability of scores from ridden temperament tests conducted during performance tests Type Journal Article
  Year 2012 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 139 Issue 3–4 Pages 251-263  
  Keywords Horse; Personality; Temperament test; Riding; Repeatability; Performance test  
  Abstract Current scores for equine personality traits assessed during performance tests are characterised by high means and inadequate variation, hampering genetic selection for these traits. A number of temperament and related behaviour tests have been developed in order to make assessment of equine personality more objective. However, rarely these tests have been validated for their use as a selection tool. Thus, as a first step the aim of the present study was to integrate a temperament tests into horse performance tests, in order to assess variability and repeatability of horses’ reactivity under the rider and the reliability of the judges’ assessment thereof. The temperament test was comprised of three novel stimuli, including a visual stimulus (BALL), a visual and tactile stimulus (GATE), and a visual and auditory stimulus (CANS). A total of 224 mares and stallions were subjected to the test during their participation in station performance tests for riding horses, and 133 of these horses were subjected to the test a second time either 2–3 weeks or 18 weeks after the first test. Horses were ridden in the test by professional riders, and their reactions to the stimuli were evaluated each by two judges and the rider using scores on a scale from 1 (task not concluded) to 10 (completely calm but attentive horse). Mean scores (±SD) ranged between 6.6 ± 2.4 (GATE) and 7.8 ± 2.1 (BALL), demonstrating lower means and considerably higher standard deviations than the same horses’ scores from present evaluation of the trait labelled temperament (8.1 ± 0.9) or related personality traits (e.g. character: 8.3 ± 0.8). Using variance components from mixed model analysis, inter-observer agreement between the two judges was for the individual stimuli very high (0.95 (BALL), 0.96 (GATE), 0.89 (CANS)), and there was likewise high agreement between the judges’ and the riders’ combined scores (0.93). Repeatabilities of horses’ scores were 0.72 (BALL), 0.75 (GATE), and 0.69 (CANS). Correlations to traits from the present evaluation of personality were low or non-existent, indicating that these traits are not a reflection of anxiety or fear reactivity as assessed by novel object tests. Horses’ improvement in judges’ combined scores from first to second test was not (P > 0.1) influenced by differences in time between tests, but differed between breed-types and individual riders. Also, not surprisingly, the higher horses’ scores in the first test were, the lower their improvement in the second test was (-0.45 ± 0.06 per additional score in the first test). Temperament tests using novel stimuli presented to horses under a rider may be a practical and valid tool for improving the current assessment of equine personality traits during performance tests. Considering a combination of absolute scores and horses’ improvement in scores of repeated tests, rather than measuring only absolute scores yields relevant information about horses’ personality, and at the same time it may prevent owners from deliberately training their horses for low reactions to the test-stimuli.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0168-1591 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5642  
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Author Watanabe, N.M.; Stahlman, W.D.; Blaisdell, A.P.; Garlick, D.; Fast, C.D.; Blumstein, D.T. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Quantifying personality in the terrestrial hermit crab: Different measures, different inferences Type Journal Article
  Year 2012 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.  
  Volume 91 Issue 2 Pages 133-140  
  Keywords Animal personality; Behavioral syndrome; Hermit crabs  
  Abstract There is much interest in studying animal personalities but considerable debate as to how to define and evaluate them. We assessed the utility of one proposed framework while studying personality in terrestrial hermit crabs (Coenobita clypeatus). We recorded the latency of individuals to emerge from their shells over multiple trials in four unique manipulations. We used the specific testing situations within these manipulations to define two temperament categories (shyness-boldness and exploration-avoidance). Our results identified individual behavioral consistency (i.e., personality) across repeated trials of the same situations, within both categories. Additionally, we found correlations between behaviors across contexts (traits) that suggested that the crabs had behavioral syndromes. While we found some correlations between behaviors that are supposed to measure the same temperament trait, these correlations were not inevitable. Furthermore, a principal component analysis (PCA) of our data revealed new relationships between behaviors and provided the foundation for an alternate interpretation: measured behaviors may be situation-specific, and may not reflect general personality traits at all. These results suggest that more attention must be placed on how we infer personalities from standardized methods, and that we must be careful to not force our data to fit our frameworks.  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5620  
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Author Sackman, J.E.; Houpt, K.A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Equine Personality: Association with Breed, Use and Husbandry Factors Type Journal Article
  Year 2018 Publication Journal of Equine Veterinary Science Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords Horse; Personality; Behavior; Breed; Use; Survey  
  Abstract Abstract

Temperament can be defined as innate properties of the nervous system whereas personality includes the complex behavioral traits acquired through life. Association between personality and behavior is important for breeding, selection, and training of horses. For the first time, we evaluated if equine personality components previously identified in Japan and Europe were consistent when applied to American horses. We examined the association of personality with breed, age, sex, management, training, stereotypies and misbehaviors.

Materials and Methods

The owner directed personality survey consisted of 25 questions. An online version of the survey was created. The principal component analysis (PCA) method was used to associate behavioral traits with personality components. Factor analysis with orthogonal transformation was performed on scores for personality related questions.

Results

847 survey responses were used. Quarter horses, “other” breed and Thoroughbred were the most common breeds. Three principal personality components were extracted as each behavioral trait belonged to one of these three components. Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Saddlebreds and Walking horses were the most nervous and Quarter horses, Paints, Appaloosas and Drafts were the least nervous. No trained discipline was significantly associated with any personality component. There were no significant associations between stereotypies and misbehaviors and nervous or curious personality.

Conclusions

For the first time in predominantly American horses, we have evaluated personality components and their association with breed, age, sex, training discipline and stereotypies. We refute links between personality and trained discipline and confirm the lack of association between nervous personality and stereotypies and misbehaviors.
 
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0737-0806 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6426  
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