Cognitive ecology in the wild—Advances and challenges in avian cognition research

VV Pravosudov - Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 2022 - Elsevier
Highlights•Animal cognition traditionally studies in the lab.•Lab studies cannot address
many ecological and evolutionary questions.•Field studies provide opportunities to study …

[HTML][HTML] The genetic basis of spatial cognitive variation in a food-caching bird

CL Branch, GA Semenov, DN Wagner, BR Sonnenberg… - Current Biology, 2022 - cell.com
Spatial cognition is used by most organisms to navigate their environment. Some species
rely particularly heavily on specialized spatial cognition to survive, suggesting that a …

Challenges in linking cognition and survival: a review

C Rochais, TL Rymer, N Pillay - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2022 - frontiersin.org
Linking cognitive performance with fitness outcomes, measured using both reproductive and
survival metrics, of free-living animals is crucial for understanding the evolution of cognition …

Spatial cognitive ability is associated with longevity in food-caching chickadees

JF Welklin, BR Sonnenberg, CL Branch, VK Heinen… - Science, 2024 - science.org
Cognitive abilities are hypothesized to affect survival and life span in nonhuman animals.
However, most tests of this hypothesis have relied on interspecific comparisons of indirect …

General cognitive performance declines with female age and is negatively related to fledging success in a wild bird

C Soravia, BJ Ashton, A Thornton… - Proceedings of the …, 2022 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Identifying the causes and fitness consequences of intraspecific variation in cognitive
performance is fundamental to understand how cognition evolves. Selection may act on …

Genes and gene networks underlying spatial cognition in food-caching chickadees

GA Semenov, BR Sonnenberg, CL Branch, VK Heinen… - Current Biology, 2024 - cell.com
Substantial progress has been made in understanding the genetic architecture of
phenotypes involved in a variety of evolutionary processes. Behavioral genetics remains …

Learning predictably changing spatial patterns across days in a food-caching bird

LM Benedict, VK Heinen, BR Sonnenberg, ES Bridge… - Animal Behaviour, 2023 - Elsevier
Highlights•Chickadees in the wild showed rule-based learning on a serial reversal
task.•Birds showed environment-based differences in learning a serial reversal task.•Birds …

Natural variation in developmental condition has limited effect on spatial cognition in a wild food-caching bird

BR Sonnenberg, VK Heinen… - … of the Royal …, 2022 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Laboratory studies show that increased physiological burden during development results in
cognitive impairment. In the wild, animals experience a wide range of developmental …

No evidence of reproductive senescence within the natural lifespan in resident mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)

JF Welklin, BR Sonnenberg, CL Branch… - Behavioral Ecology and …, 2025 - Springer
Reproductive aging in vertebrates is commonly characterized by an increase in reproductive
performance early in life and a decline in reproductive performance late in life (ie …

Foraging location preferences reflect memory interference associated with spatial learning tasks in a food-caching bird

LM Benedict, VK Heinen, JF Welklin, BR Sonnenberg… - Animal Behaviour, 2025 - Elsevier
Highlights•We measured foraging behaviour of wild birds after completing two learning
tasks.•Visits to previously rewarding locations varied with cognitive performance.• …