Subtle differences in performance in physical cognition tasks in Japanese quail selected for divergent social motivation

Consistent interindividual differences in behaviour, referred to as animal personality, are increasingly recognized as being associated with variation in cognition. Among the main personality traits, sociability remains understudied regarding its relationship with cognitive abilities. Using females from two lines of Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica , selected for high (S+) and low (S-) social motivation, we investigated whether and how divergent levels of social motivation relate to performance across three physical, nonsocial, cognitive tasks: a colour discrimination and reversal learning task, a detour task and a spatial memory task. Our results revealed no differences between lines in low-demand tasks, such as colour discrimination, suggesting that simple cognitive processes are independent of social motivation. However, subtle differences emerged in more demanding tasks: in the reversal learning task, S+ quail showed longer latencies to visit the correct cup, suggesting greater persistence in the previously learned rule. In the detour task, S+ individuals achieved a higher success rate on initial trials and completed the transparent-cylinder detour faster, possibly reflecting stronger inhibitory control or greater persistence in applying a previously learned behavioural strategy with an opaque cylinder. S+ quail also spent more time actively pecking at the transparent cylinder during incorrect trials, further reflecting greater persistence alongside lower inhibition, which together may suggest a more proactive-like behavioural profile. In the spatial memory task, S- quail demonstrated a progressively faster and more efficient search strategy, suggesting more optimal and adaptive navigation compared to S+ quail, which exhibited lower efficiency. Overall, our findings reveal a consistent pattern: individuals with higher social motivation tended to be more impulsive and rigid, constraining how efficiently and flexibly they interact with and navigate their environment. This study highlights how selection for social motivation, an important feature of an individual's overall sociability, could underlie broader behavioural-cognitive patterns in a domesticated avian model.