OK folks, no answer on my earlier question about how simple an
organism can be and still show learning. Let me try again.
I talked with a biologist today who works with tetrahymena (a
one-celled ciliate). He told me that a colleague of his has found
simple classical conditioning in the paramecium. The colleague used
two mechanical stimuli as UCS and CS and the direction of swimming as
the response. (1) a strong enough tremble in the medium to produce
an "automatic" backing up movement was the UCS and (2) a smaller
tremble in the medium was the CS. Claim: a small number of pairings
produced backing up to the CS. My colleague did not know if it was
published, but planned to ask.
Anyone know of this or similar work with simple organisms?
-Chuck
--
- Chuck Huff; 507.646.3169; http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/
- Psychology Department, St.Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057
