Divergence in problem-solving skills is associated with differential expression of glutamate receptors in wild finches.

Problem solving and innovation are key components of intelligence. We compare wild-caught individuals from two species that are close relatives of Darwin's finches, the innovative , and its most closely related species in Barbados, the conservative . We found an all-or-none difference in the problem-solving capacity of the two species.

Innovativeness and the effects of urbanization on risk-taking behaviors in wild Barbados birds.

The effects of urbanization on avian cognition remain poorly understood. Risk-taking behaviors like boldness, neophobia and flight distance are thought to affect opportunism and innovativeness, and should also vary with urbanization. Here, we investigate variation in risk-taking behaviors in the field in an avian assemblage of nine species that forage together in Barbados and for which innovation rate is known from previous work.

Object familiarization and novel-object preference in rats.

We investigated whether object familiarization was related to novel-object preference in the novel-object preference (NOP) test in rats. In Experiment 1, we found that no significant correlation existed between the time spent investigating 2 identical copies of a sample object and the degree of preference for a novel object. In Experiment 2, rats investigated 2 identical sample objects for a total of 5, 30, 60, 90 or 120s.