On Tue, 4 Sep 2001, Chuck Huff wrote:
> 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
one of the problems with these type of research is
pin-pointing the the proximal stimulus(is it sound or tactile?one shold
not assume that just because one rings a bell that the stimulus which
produced the response was auditory.It could have been tactile)and the
operational definition of the actual response.
Michael Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida
