Abstract
An animal’s perception of its body size is modified when it adapts its body to changes in a complex environment. This ability is essential for animals that use tools or cross apertures. Here, we show that terrestrial hermit crabs, Coenobita rugosus, which frequently change shells, can perceive the width of the aperture to be crossed, dependent on the shape of their shells. Hermit crabs walked in a corridor that had two different size apertures; most of the crabs with a large shell did not cross the narrow aperture, indicating an awareness of aperture width. Moreover, most of the crabs with a small shell with an attachment did not select the narrow aperture, either. These results are the first demonstration of animals perceiving affordance while carrying objects.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Shumaler RW, Walkup KR, Beck BB (2011) Animal tool behavior: the use and manufacture of tools by animals. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Iriki A, Tanaka M, Iwamura Y (1996) Coding of modified body schema during tool use by macaque postcentral neurons. NeuroReport 7:2325–2330
Botvinick M, Cohen J (1998) Rubber hands ‘feel’ touch that eyes see. Nature 391:756
de Vignemont F (2011) Embodiment, ownership and disownership. Conscious Cogn 20:82–93
Wagman JB, Taylor KR (2005) Perceiving affordances for aperture crossing for the person-plus-object system. Ecol Psychol 17(2):105–130
Higuchi T, Hatano N, Soma K, Imanaka K (2009) Perception of spatial requirements for wheelchair locomotion in experienced users with tetraplegia. J Physiol Anthropol 28:15–21
Shaw RE, Flascher OM, Kadar EE (1995) Dimensionless invariants for intentional systems: measuring the fit of vehicular activities to environmental layout. In: Flanch J, Hancock P, Cairo J, Vicente K (eds) Global perspective on the ecology of human-machine systems. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 293–358
Elwood RW (1995) Motivational change during resource assessment in hermit crabs. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 193:41–55
Osorno JL, Fernández-Casillas L, RodrÃguez-Juárez C (1998) Are hermit crabs looking for light and large shells? Evidence from natural and field induced shell exchanges. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 222:163–173
Hazlett BA (1981) The behavioral ecology of hermit crabs. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 12:1–22
Brooks WR (1989) Hermit crabs alter sea anemone placement patterns for shell balance and reduced predation. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 132:109–121
Sonoda K, Asakura A, Minoura M, Elwood RW, Gunji Y–P (2012) Hermit crabs perceive the extent of their virtual bodies. Biol Lett 8(4):495–497
Acknowledgements
The Murata Science Foundation supported this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Sonoda, K., Moriyama, T., Asakura, A., Furuyama, N., Gunji, YP. (2013). Can Hermit Crabs Perceive Affordance for Aperture Crossing?. In: Gilbert, T., Kirkilionis, M., Nicolis, G. (eds) Proceedings of the European Conference on Complex Systems 2012. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00395-5_68
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00395-5_68
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00394-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00395-5
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)