Megan Brown

• BSc (Hons) Zoology
• Investigating individual learning and the role of strategic error on decision making during hermit crab contests

The purpose of this project was to investigate contest behaviours and assessment strategy of hermit crabs and explore their associative learning capabilities using classical conditioning. Hermit crabs compete in fights of shell rapping in which an attacking crab repeatedly brings its shell into contact with a defending crab’s shell during rapid bouts which may result in a shell exchange. In this experiment, fighting behaviour was observed post-conditioning to observe whether an individual’s learning could affect their contest behaviour.

Using classical conditioning, individuals were exposed to high/low quality shells painted either black/white. Two groups were trained under different conditions. One group with a constant association of shell colour and quality (Group Consistent) and crabs with random pairings of colour and quality (Group Inconsistent).

If hermit crabs are capable of learning the association between shell colour and quality, their opponent’s shell colour should influence their motivation during the fight, depending on whether the hermit had associated the colour with high or low quality during conditioning.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Domhnall Jennings