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Neophobia is not only avoidance: Improving neophobia tests by combining cognition and ecology


Change log

Authors

Greggor, AL 
Thornton, A 
Clayton, NS 

Abstract

Psychologists and behavioural ecologists use neophobia tests to measure behaviours ranging from anxiety to predatory wariness. Psychologists typically focus on underlying cognitive mechanisms at the expense of ecological validity, while behavioural ecologists generally examine adaptive function but ignore cognition. However, neophobia is an ecologically relevant fear behaviour that arises through a cognitive assessment of novel stimuli. Both fields have accrued conflicting results using various testing protocols, making it unclear what neophobia tests measure and what correlations between neophobia and other traits mean. Developing cognitively and ecologically informed tests allows neophobia to be empirically evaluated where appropriate and controlled for where it interferes with other behavioural measures. We offer guidelines for designing tests and stress the need for interdisciplinary dialogue to better explore neophobia's proximate causes and ecological consequences.

Description

Keywords

5202 Biological Psychology, 52 Psychology, Mental health

Journal Title

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2352-1546
2352-1546

Volume Title

6

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/H021817/1)
We would like to thank Alecia Carter for helpful discussion and comments on the manuscript and to thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor, Dr. Hofmann, for their thoughtful and insightful feedback. A.L.G. received generous support from the Gates-Cambridge Trust; A.T. is funded by a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship (BB/H021817/1).