Abstract:[Objectives] Previous studies proposed differences in cognitive performances among different individuals, and there may be associations between multiple cognitive performance in the same individual. However, the correlations of cognitive performances in animals are still controversies. We would like to explore the associations between the performance of the different cognitive experiments. [Methods] In this study, we used self-control, associative learning and reversal learning experiments to investigate the correlations among these cognitive performances in the Budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus). A detour reaching task was used to measure the individuals’ self-control ability, with a transparent open cylinder (6.5 cm in length and 6.5 cm in diameter; Fig. 1a) in which a food reward was placed in the center. Trials were conducted at one-minute intervals for a total of ten times, all trails were performed on the same day if possible. The trial was considered as successful if the subject inhibited the initial response of pecking the transparent cylinder and went around to the open ends of the cylinder to obtain the food reward. Subjects were considered complete the self-control task once they had successfully circled the open ends of the cylinder without pecking at the transparent cylinder walls three times in a row. The number of successful trials was considered as the self-control ability. A color-discrimination task was designed by using a wooden foraging grid (16 cm × 6 cm × 3 cm) with two wells (2 cm diameter, 1 cm deep; Fig. 1b) to test the associative learning ability of Budgerigars. In each trial, the wells were covered by a dark-green lid and a light-green lid. In associative learning, light-green was assigned as the rewarded color. In the first experiment, individuals were able to observe two wells and they could find that only light-green well with a food reward. In all subsequent trails, individuals were only allowed to open well once before the task was removed. Individuals were considered to have completed associative learning if they could successfully open the light-green well 8 times out of 9 trials. The number of trials taken to reach this criterion (including the last 9 experiments) was used to assess the individual's associative learning ability. After 24 hours of the individual completed associative learning, the reverse learning would be carried out. The same foraging grid would be presented with the only difference of the colour of the rewarded lid being reversed from that of the associative learning task. The experimental protocol and the criteria for passing were the same as the associative learning task described above. Before the above experiments start, the time span between the experimental devices were watched and touched for the first time was recorded for each individual, which was used to represent individuals’ neophobia. We use Spearman rank correlation matrix to analyze the correlation between three cognitive tests, and the relationship between cognitive traits and neophobia time. Paired t-test was used to analyze the differences between number of trails of associative learning and reversal learning. Independent sample t-test was used to analyze the differences between males and females in three cognitive experiments. [Results] The number of successful self-control trials was 6.8 ± 1.9 times. The numbers of trails until passed associative learning and reversal learning were 74.7 ± 42.5 times and 106.6 ± 68.1 times, respectively. Individuals' neophobia times for each two devices were 247.7 ± 538.3 s and 47.9 ± 73.9 s. Our results showed that the number of trails until passed associative learning was less than reversal learning in the same individual (t =﹣2.711, df = 24,P = 0.012), while better reversal learning came along with better associative learning (rs = 0.560, P = 0.004; Fig. 2). Self-control performance was associated with the neophobia (rs =﹣0.480, P = 0.014), less neophobia came along with better self-control performance. There was no significant difference between male and female Budgerigars in three cognitive performances (Table 1). [Conclusion] Our experiments found a strong correlation between associative learning and reverse learning, and this suggest that general cognitive ability may exist in Budgerigars. Self-control experiments had no significant correlation with other cognitive experiments, however, they were associated with neophobia, so cognitive performances might be affected by non-cognitive factors. More research is needed in the future to verify the association between cognitive performances.