Are cognitive abilities under selection by female choice? A comment on Chen et al. (2019)

A recent paper by Chen et al. (2019, Science, 363 (6423), 166–167) found that female budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus, show a preference for males that are successful problem solvers. Is this result sufficient to conclude that mate choice influences the evolution of cognitive abilities? Here, we consider what we currently know about the relationship between problem solving and cognition. We argue that it is premature to conclude, based on...