Specific aspects of cognition, including learning and memory are key to understanding problems in behavioral ecology. To understand cognition, it is necessary to study its ecological consequences and evolution. Using lab and field based approaches; I will assess how social context affects behavior and decision-making in the monogamous pinyon jay, Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus to examine how natural and sexual selection may have shaped the evolution of cognition.

Pinyon jays are largely dependant upon food caches during the mating and breeding seasons, and daily pilferage rates in this system have been shown to range from 2-30% (Vander Wall, 1990). Previous studies in other species of caching birds have shown that cachers modify aspects of caching behavior to avoid cache pilferage when conspecifics are present. These studies have focused on the presence or absence of an observer, but my research examines the affects of specific observer identity. Determining whether pinyon jays use information about their social context to adjust their caching behaviors will elucidate which sources of natural and sexual selection might have influenced foraging cognition in the system.

Due to the complex social structure in pinyon jay flocks, I hypothesize that pinyon jays will behave selectively towards different flock members, deceiving some by relocating caches, and not deceiving others that impart inclusive or direct fitness, such as mates or kin.