Can mantids recognize faces?

[gadunka888]

ok........ ( insert light bulb over head smiley here) i thought of an experiment to show whether mantids recognize faces.

what you need:

A willing voulunteer

Mealworms( or any other mantid food)

A mantis

1. Feed the mantis. Make sure it sees you

2. Get someone to disturb the mantis( like poking it very gently. The mantis should move away.)

3. Repeat this over a period of a few days ( so that the mantis does not get stressed.)

4. Later, if the mantis moves away when it sees the person that poked it, it proves that mantids can recognize faces.

Pls comment on anything that might go wrong( the mantis will be really stressed at the end of this experiment!!!!! )

if you can, pls try to carry out this experiment! :lol:

 

[Rick]

Uh ok.

 

[Geart]

This is kinda retarded <_<

 

[jacksun]

What you would create would be akin to the Pavlov's dog experiment, you would simply succeed in conditioning your mantis to become terrorized when it detected something large in the vicinity of its habitat. Mantids, like most insects and animals simply become conditioned that X happens so Y follows. They don't truly comprehend what they are doing, they just do it to avoid or acquire the expected result.

You train (not teach) a dog to sit. The dog becomes conditioned to execute a certain action when it hears the word sit. It doesn't sit because it learns that it should sit when you stop to talk to someone, but when you say sit. If they truly learned, they would do what was expected of them in any given situation, without any commands and dog bites, runaway dogs, and late night barking would not be issues.

What training amounts to is the altering or controlling of an animals instincts. The mantid would not be able to differentiate between exhibiting fright and running away from person A and not exhibiting fright and staying put with person B. The mantid would choose flight in all situations due to conditioning and the inability to think and assess the different situations, which to them would be identical.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Mine know me! :lol: they all start jibbering and running around when I come into the room, u should hear the noise :lol:

 

[OGIGA]

Okay, then get a third person at random times to see if the mantis is afraid of him/her too.

 

[[email protected]]

[SIZE=14pt]Oh ok well tell us all how it goes [/SIZE]

 

[PhilinYuma]

I presume that you have researched this topic pretty thoroughly, Nightlurker and will agree that the maximum distance at which a mantis can recognize prey is about 30cm, so yr face would have to be that far away, no further, and probably moving, in order for the insect to percieve you at all. Given that the mantis perceives visual stimuli through a multitude of ommantidia and that the acceptance angle for one such ommantidium in bright light is only 0.7%, then I think that you will agree that the mantis cannot perceive your face as a discrete entity, let alone distinguish one face from another.

Nightlurker: Once again, I implore you, get a mantis soon that you can love and care for! I imagine that like some of our other younger members, you are now on summer vacation. Without a mantis, I fear that things can only get worse!

 

[lectricblueyes]

Interesting post. It does spark the imagination. I'd like to know exactly how much these insects have going on in those tiny brains. How "smart" are they exactly? Seems like pure hard-wired instinct, nothing more. I hear fish have a 30-second short-term memory. But, who knows how much of that is true and I don't think fish-memory applies to mantid memory/thoughts.

So the question is, how smart are mantids?

 

[lectricblueyes]

I presume that you have researched this topic pretty thoroughly, Nightlurker and will agree that the maximum distance at which a mantis can recognize prey is about 30cm, so yr face would have to be that far away, no further, and probably moving, in order for the insect to percieve you at all. Given that the mantis perceives visual stimuli through a multitude of ommantidia and that the acceptance angle for one such ommantidium in bright light is only 0.7%, then I think that you will agree that the mantis cannot perceive your face as a discrete entity, let alone distinguish one face from another.Nightlurker: Once again, I implore you, get a mantis soon that you can love and care for! I imagine that like some of our other younger members, you are now on summer vacation. Without a mantis, I fear that things can only get worse!

Now I know how people feel when I try to describe to them what I am doing when I'm creating a virtual server on the blade-farm in the datacenter at my company. The real question Phil, is... do you speak english?

 

[PhilinYuma]

Interesting post. It does spark the imagination. I'd like to know exactly how much these insects have going on in those tiny brains. How "smart" are they exactly? Seems like pure hard-wired instinct, nothing more. I hear fish have a 30-second short-term memory. But, who knows how much of that is true and I don't think fish-memory applies to mantid memory/thoughts.So the question is, how smart are mantids?

Mantids are just smart (instinctive?) enough to catch prey (some of the time) avoid predators (some of the time), find a mate (most of the time), reproduce (except when we really want them to) and die (every time). They don't need anything more!

 

[Katnapper]

Of course none of this would be valid or matter if they could recognize and differentiate individual humans by smell.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Now I know how people feel when I try to describe to them what I am doing when I'm creating a virtual server on the blade-farm in the datacenter at my company. The real question Phil, is... do you speak english?

Well, I dun speak it guddernuff ter get by on west maddison,* mate, hic!

*If you aren't from Chicago, do not confuse this street with Madison Avenue, where Dave hangs out!.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Mine know me, when I go into the room and pick up their container, they all brace theirselves for a drink they know is coming and stick their little hands out for a cricket! hey u guys don't take me seriously do u?

 

[lectricblueyes]

Mantids are just smart (instinctive?) enough to catch prey (some of the time) avoid predators (some of the time), find a mate (most of the time), reproduce (except when we really want them to) and die (every time). They don't need anything more!

Couldn't the exact same thing be said for humans?

 

[lectricblueyes]

Well, I dun speak it guddernuff ter get by on west maddison,* mate, hic!*If you aren't from Chicago, do not confuse this street with Madison Avenue, where Dave hangs out!.

With that drunken banter and being your age, you belong at the Viagra Triangle on the Gold Coast... not Madison unless your one of those dorky rich banker types who hangs out at those hotel bars in a 3-piece on a Saturday night.

 

[PhilinYuma]

With that drunken banter and being your age, you belong at the Viagra Triangle on the Gold Coast... not Madison unless your one of those dorky rich banker types who hangs out at those hotel bars in a 3-piece on a Saturday night.

My god! They still do that? It was called "slumming" in my day.

What was this thread about again?

 

[OGIGA]

Now I know how people feel when I try to describe to them what I am doing when I'm creating a virtual server on the blade-farm in the datacenter at my company. The real question Phil, is... do you speak english?

Haha, I know exactly what that means. It's because I'm the expert in that area in my company.