Audrey Schlais, “Can Orb Weaver Spiders Solve Novel Problems?”
Mentors: Rafael Rodriguez and Clint Sergi, Biological Sciences
The ability to solve problems varies greatly between animal species. Some animals are thought to use insight. Insight is the ability to solve a problem in one attempt after an impasse, which differs from trial-and-error learning or pre-programmed responses in that animals “think” of a solution to a problem before attempting the solution. We analyzed the novel problem-solving abilities, and whether these abilities include insight of two species of orb weaver spiders, Larinioides sclopetarius and Araneus diadematus (Araneidae). These spiders are sit-and-wait predators that might not be expected to possess such abilities given their biology. We first tested the problem-solving hypothesis, which states that these spiders can solve a novel prey capture problem. We then tested the insight hypothesis. Finally, we tested the species differences hypothesis which states that spider species will differ in their likelihood and method of solving the problem. To test these three hypotheses, we subjected wild spiders to the problem of receiving prey directly in their mouthparts as opposed to in their web. In order to solve the novel problem, the spider was required to wrap their prey and secure it to the web. We recorded whether each spider was successful at solving the problem, the behavior used when successful, and whether the spider solved the problem in one attempt. Most spiders of both species solved the problem. Different spiders used different behaviors to solve the problem, but those behaviors occurred with similar frequencies in the two species. Our results provide evidence that these spiders solve problems and have the ability to use insight.
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Audrey: Thank you for sharing your research! I’d never heard about the different kinds of problem solving—but the idea of insight vs trial-and-error is well explained in your introduction, making it feel intuitive. The way you present your results is engaging for a visual learner like myself—the graphs you use and example images are very helpful in understanding what your trials looked like and how the spiders responded. One of your successes here is getting me, someone who doesn’t think about spiders or other insects particularly often, to ask the question ‘how do these little guys think about their world?’ Congrats on a great presentation!
Hi Audrey – thanks for sharing your very cool research! I couldn’t see the graphs or graph labels very well in my screen but your conclusions for each experiment were nice and clear! Great that you were able to do some hands-on research! Good job!
Great job, Audrey. Really interesting to think about creatures like spiders having this kind of cognitive ability. It looked like your graphs measured how easily the spiders solved the problem in minutes, but your hypothesis and conclusion discussed this in terms of “attempts.” Is it safe to say that a short time to solution corresponded to a single attempt?
The graphs were a bit small, but I was able to view them fine by zooming in.
Hi Anna.
Each attempt was measured in time of minutes or seconds. Each attempt was representative of each time a prey item was offered to the spider, taken by the spider, and time began once the spider began to visually attempt to solve the problem of attaching the prey item to the web. Although a few spiders took longer to solve after beginning an attempt, majority were able to solve the problem within seconds of beginning their attempt.
Thank you!