Individuals exhibiting a high level of cognitive ability may also exhibit more elaborate traits
and so gain higher levels of mating success. This suggests that selection may act on …

Stress during early life can cause disease and cognitive impairment in humans and non-
humans alike [1]. However, stress and other environmental factors can also program …

The extent to which animal societies exhibit social conformity as opposed to behavioural
diversity is commonly attributed to adaptive learning strategies. Less attention is given to the …

Highlights•Whether to eat toxic prey is a trade-off between getting nutrients and
toxicity.•Starlings faced either high or low food competition in early life.•Birds that had faced …

The use of information provided by others is a common short-cut adopted to inform decision-
making. However, instead of indiscriminately copying others, animals are often selective in …

Highlights•Immune activation early in life programs adult behavior.•Behaviors programmed
in birds include: dispersal, song, learning, and personality.•The hippocampus and HVC may …

The 'cognitive capacity hypothesis' states that song complexity could potentially be used by
prospective mates to assess an individual's overall cognitive ability. Several recent studies …

Highlights•A meta-analysis of factors that may affect auditory discrimination
learning.•Females learned auditory discriminations faster than males.•Developmental …

Group-living animals rely on social skills which ensure beneficial interaction and prevent
harmful ones with conspecifics. In a previous experiment, we demonstrated that male zebra …

The social acquisition of life skills is essential in a wide range of species. Field experiments
have demonstrated that naïve young learn particularly from their parents how to deal with …