Data from: Uninhibited chickens: ranging behavior impacts motor self-regulation in free-range broiler chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Inhibiting impulsive, less flexible behaviors is of utmost importance for individual adaptation in an ever-changing environment. However, problem-solving tasks may be greatly impacted by individual differences in behavior, since animals with distinct behavioral types perceive and interact with their environment differently, resulting in variable responses to the same stimuli. Here, we tested whether and how differences in ranging behavior of free-range chickens affect motor self-regulation performance during a cylinder task. For this task, subjects must refrain from trying to reach a food reward through the walls of a transparent cylinder and detour to its open sides, as a sign of inhibition. Free-range chickens exhibited an overall low performance in the motor self-regulation task (31.33% ± 13.55% of correct responses), however high rangers showed significantly poorer performance than the low rangers (23.75% ± 9.16% vs 40% ± 12.90%, respectively). These results give further support to the impacts of individual behavioral differences on cognitive performances. This is the first demonstration to our knowledge of a relationship between exploratory tendencies and motor self-regulation for an avian species.