Given that the sexes often differ in their ecological and sexual selection pressures, sex differences in cognitive properties are likely. While research on sexually dimorphic cognition often focuses on performance, it commonly overlooks how sexes diverge across cognitive domains and in behaviors exhibited during a cognitive task (cognitive style). We tested male and female western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) in three cognitive tasks: associative learning (numerical discrimination), cognitive flexibility (detour task), and spatio-temporal learning (shuttlebox). We characterized statistical relationships between cognitive performances and cognitive style during the associative learning task with measures of anxiety, boldness, exploration, reaction time, and activity. We found sex differences in performance, cognitive style, and the relationships between cognitive domains. Females outperformed males in the spatio-temporal learning task, while the sexes performed equally in associate learning and cognitive flexibility assays. Females (but not males) exhibited a ‘fast-exploratory’ cognitive style during associative learning trials. Meanwhile, only males showed a significant positive relationship between domains (associative learning and cognitive flexibility). We propose that these sexually dimorphic cognitive traits result from strong sexual conflict in this taxon; and emphasize the need to explore suites of sex-specific cognitive traits and broader comparative work examining sexual selection and cognition.

中文翻译：

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蚊鱼跨域认知能力和风格的性别差异。

鉴于性别在生态和性别选择压力上常常不同，因此在认知特性上可能存在性别差异。尽管对性二态性认知的研究通常侧重于表现，但它通常忽略了性别如何跨认知域和认知任务（认知方式）表现出的行为发散。我们测试了雄性和雌性西部蚊子（Gambusia affinis）在三个认知任务中：联想学习（数字歧视），认知灵活性（绕道任务）和时空学习（穿梭箱）。我们通过焦虑，大胆，探索，反应时间和活动来度量联想学习任务期间认知表现和认知风格之间的统计关系。我们发现性别在表现，认知风格以及认知领域之间的关系上存在差异。在时空学习任务中，女性的表现要好于男性，而在联想学习和认知灵活性测试中，性别表现均相同。女性（而不是男性）在联想学习试验中表现出“快速探索”的认知风格。与此同时，只有男性显示出领域之间的显着正相关（联想学习和认知灵活性）。我们认为，这些性二形性认知特征是由该分类单元中强烈的性冲突导致的。并强调有必要探索一系列针对性别的认知特征，并开展更广泛的比较研究，以研究性选择和认知。