Abstract Behavioral flexibility provides an individual with the ability to adapt its behavior in response to environmental changes. Studies on mammals, birds, and teleosts indicate greater behavioral flexibility in females. Conversely, males appear to exhibit greater behavioral persistence. We, therefore, investigated sex differences in behavioral flexibility in 2 closely related molly species (Poecilia latipinna, P. mexicana) and their more distant relative, the guppy P. reticulata by comparing male and female individuals in a serial, visual reversal learning task. Fish were first trained in color discrimination, which was quickly learned by all females (guppies and mollies) and all molly males alike. Despite continued training over more than 72 sessions, male guppies did not learn the general test procedure and were, therefore, excluded from further testing. Once the reward contingency was reversed serially, molly males of both species performed considerably better by inhibiting their previous response and reached the learning criterion significantly faster than their respective conspecific females. Moreover, Atlantic molly males clearly outperformed all other individuals (males and females) and some of them even reached the level of 1-trial learning. Thus, the apparently universal pattern of higher female behavioral flexibility seems to be inverted in the 2 examined molly species, although the evolutionary account of this pattern remains highly speculative. These findings were complemented by the observed lower neophobia of female sailfin mollies compared with their male conspecifics. This sex difference was not observed in Atlantic mollies that were observed to be significantly less distressed in a novel situation than their consexuals. Hypothetically, sex differences in behavioral flexibility can possibly be explained in terms of the different roles that males and females play in mating competition, mate choice, and reproduction or, more generally, in complex social interactions. Each of these characteristics clearly differed between the closely related mollies and the more distantly related guppies.

中文翻译：

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mollies 和 guppies 颜色辨别和连续逆转学习的性别差异

摘要 行为灵活性使个体能够适应其行为以响应环境变化。对哺乳动物、鸟类和硬骨鱼的研究表明，雌性具有更大的行为灵活性。相反，男性似乎表现出更大的行为持久性。因此，我们通过在连续的视觉反转学习任务中比较男性和女性个体，研究了 2 种密切相关的莫莉物种（Poecilia latipinna，P. mexicana）及其更远亲的孔雀鱼 P. reticulata 在行为灵活性方面的性别差异。鱼首先接受颜色辨别训练，所有雌性（孔雀鱼和鲢鱼）和所有鲱鱼雄性都很快学会了这一点。尽管继续训练超过 72 次，雄性孔雀鱼并没有学习一般的测试程序，因此，排除在进一步测试之外。一旦奖励偶然性被连续逆转，两个物种的莫莉雄性通过抑制其先前的反应表现得更好，并且比各自的同种雌性显着更快地达到学习标准。此外，大西洋莫莉雄性明显优于所有其他个体（雄性和雌性），其中一些甚至达到了 1 次试验学习的水平。因此，在 2 种被检查的莫莉物种中，较高的女性行为灵活性的明显普遍模式似乎被颠倒了，尽管这种模式的进化解释仍然具有高度的推测性。与雄性同种相比，观察到的雌性旗鳍鼹鼠的恐新症较低，补充了这些发现。在大西洋鼢鼠中没有观察到这种性别差异，它们在新情况下的痛苦程度明显低于它们的性伴侣。假设，行为灵活性的性别差异可能可以解释为男性和女性在交配竞争、配偶选择和繁殖中，或者更一般地说，在复杂的社会互动中所扮演的不同角色。这些特征中的每一个在亲缘关系密切的孔雀鱼和亲缘关系更远的孔雀鱼之间都明显不同。