Abstract
Predators play a fundamental role in ecology and have been shown to influence prey physiology, morphology and behaviour. This influence may also impact certain aspects of cognition, such as learning and memory. Free-living animals rely on these cognitive functions for numerous aspects of their survival. However, research involving these processes is often limited to the laboratory where animals are far removed from natural influences. My research explores learning and memory within free-living populations of Peromyscus leucopus and the impact that predation risk has on these processes. In my first section, I adapted a well-established learning/memory paradigm, the Morris water maze (MWM), for field use in natural populations. By assessing several variables that serve as standard metrics for learning and memory within the Morris water maze, I was able to illustrate the ability of wild mice to successfully navigate within our modified maze. In my second section, I tested the effects of predation risk on learning and memory using this field-adapted Morris water maze, and also explored how individual state differences impact cognitive performance. While predation risk was not shown to affect performance in this task, I found significant differences related to individual swimming behaviour. My research is one of the first studies to test learning and memory in free-living animals within their natural habitat and to examine the effects that predation risk has on cognition within these populations. This work is important for promoting more accessible forms of cognitive testing, diminishing the disparity of knowledge that is often present between laboratory and field research, and illuminating the complexities of individual risk response.