Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning?
The interest in animal personality have increased the last couple of decades and several studies have been made trying to explain why these differences in behaviour exist between individuals. Some of these studies have found that an individual’s personality changes as it ages and to explain these, t...
| Autor principal: | |
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| Formato: | M2 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
| Publicado: |
SLU/Dept. of Ecology
2019
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| Materias: |
| _version_ | 1855572457353641984 |
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| author | Olofsson, Caroliné |
| author_browse | Olofsson, Caroliné |
| author_facet | Olofsson, Caroliné |
| author_sort | Olofsson, Caroliné |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | The interest in animal personality have increased the last couple of decades and several studies have been made trying to explain why these differences in behaviour exist between individuals. Some of these studies have found that an individual’s personality changes as it ages and to explain these, theories focusing on genetic and phenotypic aspects has been used. Predictions that an organism’s experiences would change its behaviour have however ben made.
To test if learning was a reason for the animals changed behaviour, I tested if repeated behavioural would cause behaviour in the House cricket Acheta domesticus, to change. The personality trait measured was boldness, an individual’s willingness to expose itself to risks.
To measure boldness in the crickets, behavioural trails where a cricket´s willingness to exit out of a tube and into a novel environment was tested. The time it took for crickets to exit the tube was measured in two groups, one control group and one test group. The control group was tested once at the start of the experiment and once at the end while the test group that was tested multiple times throughout the experiment.
Results showed that a cricket´s emergence time decreased with repeated test trails in the test group. While no clear decrees could be seen in the control group. These results indicate that crickets did become bolder whit time in the test group but not in the control group. These differences between groups indicates that there might be a learning process going on. |
| format | M2 |
| id | RepoSLU14719 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés swe |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Ecology |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Ecology |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU147192020-06-04T12:50:18Z Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? Förändrat beteende hos hussyrsan Acheta domesticus : förutbestämt eller en effekt av inlärning? Olofsson, Caroliné personality crickets boldness animal personality learning The interest in animal personality have increased the last couple of decades and several studies have been made trying to explain why these differences in behaviour exist between individuals. Some of these studies have found that an individual’s personality changes as it ages and to explain these, theories focusing on genetic and phenotypic aspects has been used. Predictions that an organism’s experiences would change its behaviour have however ben made. To test if learning was a reason for the animals changed behaviour, I tested if repeated behavioural would cause behaviour in the House cricket Acheta domesticus, to change. The personality trait measured was boldness, an individual’s willingness to expose itself to risks. To measure boldness in the crickets, behavioural trails where a cricket´s willingness to exit out of a tube and into a novel environment was tested. The time it took for crickets to exit the tube was measured in two groups, one control group and one test group. The control group was tested once at the start of the experiment and once at the end while the test group that was tested multiple times throughout the experiment. Results showed that a cricket´s emergence time decreased with repeated test trails in the test group. While no clear decrees could be seen in the control group. These results indicate that crickets did become bolder whit time in the test group but not in the control group. These differences between groups indicates that there might be a learning process going on. Intresset för djurens personlighet har ökat de senaste decennierna och flera studier har gjorts för att förklara varför dessa skillnader i beteende finns mellan individer. Några av dessa studier har funnit att en individs personlighet förändras i takt med att den åldras och för att förklara detta har teorier som främst fokuserar på genetiska och fenotypiska aspekter använts. Förutsägelser om att en organisms upplevelser skulle förändra dess beteende har dock gjorts. För att testa om lärande var en orsak till djuren förändrade beteendet, testade jag om upprepat beteendetester skulle orsaka ett förändrat beteende hos Hussyrsan Acheta domesticus. Det personlighetsdrag som testades var en individs benägenhet att utsätta sig för risker. För att mäta risktagandet hos syrsorna testades hur villig en syrsa var gå ut ur ett rör och in i en ny miljö testades. Den tid det tog för syrsor att lämna röret mättes i två grupper, en kontrollgrupp och en testgrupp. Kontrollgruppen testades en gång vid experimentets början och en gång i slutet, medan testgruppen testades flera gånger under experimentet. Resultaten visade att en crickets utgångstid minskade med upprepade testomgångar i testgruppen. Men inga klara skillnader kunde ses i kontrollgruppen. Dessa resultat tyder på att syrsorna blev mer risktagande med tiden i testgruppen men inte i kontrollgruppen. Dessa skillnader mellan grupper indikerar att det möjligtvis förekommer en inlärningsprocess. SLU/Dept. of Ecology 2019 M2 eng swe https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/14719/ |
| spellingShingle | personality crickets boldness animal personality learning Olofsson, Caroliné Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? |
| title | Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? |
| title_full | Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? |
| title_fullStr | Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? |
| title_short | Changed behavior in the house cricket Acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? |
| title_sort | changed behavior in the house cricket acheta domesticus : predetermined or an effect of learning? |
| topic | personality crickets boldness animal personality learning |