Entries on ‘Collective cognition’

24 Sep 2009

Collective Motion and Decision-Making in Animal Groups

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By accessing social cues individuals, who may themselves be limited in sensory range and cognitive capacity, can access higher-order computational capabilities. We have previously shown, in a paper in Nature, how directional information can be effectively disseminated within groups, facilitating both ad-hoc leadership and consensus decision-making even in the absence of signaling or individual recognition. [...]


22 Sep 2009

Pheromone trail networks in ants

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Among the everyday challenges an ant colony faces, the exploration and the exploitation of its environment is one of the most critical. In some species food collection is achieved by thousands of workers travelling along well-defined foraging trails. These trails emerge from a succession of pheromone deposits and can result in a complex network of interconnected routes. [...]