Animal Expertise: Evidence of Phase Transitions by Utilizing Running Estimates of Performance Variability

Animal behavioral flexibility is facilitated by the ability of animals to acquire expertise. For motor skills, expertise development is obvious; however, for perceptual and cognitive skills it is hidden from view. The study of covert skills in people is facilitated by the ability of people to verbally report what they are doing. Verbal reports are not an option when studying other animals. Nevertheless, systemic changes may be detectable by changes in performance variability. An increase in performance variability occurs during a period of self-reported skill phase transition in people in which more than 1 strategy is used in an intermixed fashion. For 2 perceptual categorization tasks in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), 1 visual and 1 olfactory, running measures of performance variability reveal an increase in performance variability during training similar to the one seen during reported phase transitions in people. The use of running estimates of performance variability may be a new tool for detecting the occurrence of phase transitions in skill in nonlanguage users.