Problem Solving and Autonomous Behavior in Pill Bugs (Armadillidiun vulgare)
Title:
Problem Solving and Autonomous Behavior in Pill Bugs (Armadillidiun vulgare)
Author:
Moriyama, Tohru
Appeared in:
Ecological psychology
Paging:
Volume 16 (2004) nr. 4 pages 287-302
Year:
2004-10-01
Contents:
This research demonstrates an aspect of problem solving with the creation of emergent (what I have called "autonomous") behaviors in pill bugs (Armadillidium vulgare, Isopoda, Crustacean). Two pill bugs were connected back-to-back by a string and left for hours. In this situation, movement of 1 individual (Individual 1) is transmitted by the string and becomes a vibration stimulus to the other (Individual 2). Then Individual 2 tries to escape, and its movement becomes another stimulus to Individual 1. In theory, this process continues, and these individuals cannot escape from the stimulus. In this problematic situation, "mounting" and "death-feigning" behaviors (not ordinarily observed) appeared. These behaviors seem to be emergent autonomous escaping behaviors from the inescapable vibration stimulus. The spatial distribution of pairs showing these behaviors, contrasted with pairs that did not show them, appeared to obey Zipf's law, a statistical property of natural languages.
Journal description