ANALYSIS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS IN CHINDONGO DEMASONI AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH COGNITIVE ABILITY

To investigate the relationship between personality traits and cognitive abilities in fish, this study used juvenile Chindongo demasoni, a highly social cichlid species, as the model organism. Through associative learning training and tests based on a “color-food reward” paradigm, we assessed cognitive performance and analyzed its correlation with three personality traits: activity, boldness, and sociability. The results showed that: (1) Activity and boldness were positively correlated in Chindongo demasoni (P=0.024), supporting the Behavioral Syndromes Hypothesis; (2) The fish successfully formed associations between color cues and food rewards through associative learning, with the correct choice rate increasing significantly over training days (P<0.001); (3) Sociability was positively correlated with cognitive performance, as measured by the correct choice rate during the test phase (P=0.006), while no significant relationship was found between cognitive performance and either activity or boldness. The link between sociability and cognitive ability supports the Social Brain Hypothesis, suggesting that for social fish, the demand to process complex social information may be an important driver in the evolution of cognition.