Animal contests govern access to key resources and are a fundamental determinant of fitness within populations. Little is known about the mechanisms generating individual variation in strategic contest behavior or what this variation means for population level processes. Cognition governs the expression of behaviors during contests, most notably by linking experience gained with decision making, but its role in driving the evolutionary ecological dynamics of contests is only beginning to emerge. We review the kinds of cognitive mechanisms that underlie contest behavior, emphasize the importance of feedback loops and socio-ecological context, and suggest that contest behavior provides an ideal focus for integrative studies of phenotypic variation.

动物竞赛决定着对关键资源的获取，是决定人群适应性的根本决定因素。对于在战略竞赛行为中产生个体差异的机制或这种差异对人口水平过程的意义知之甚少。认知控制比赛期间行为的表达，最显着的是将经验与决策联系起来，但是它在推动比赛进化生态动力学中的作用才刚刚开始出现。我们审查了竞赛行为基础的各种认知机制，强调了反馈回路和社会生态环境的重要性，并提出竞赛行为为表型变异的综合研究提供了理想的关注点。