Learning in Plants: Lessons from Mimosa pudica

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the early Mimosa pudica literature; much of which is in journals not easily accessible to the reader. In contrast to the contemporary plant learning literature which is conducted primarily by plant biologists, this early literature was conducted by comparative psychologists whose goal was to search for the generality of learning phenomena such as habituation, and classical conditioning using experimental designs based on animal conditioning studies. In addition to reviewing the early literature, we hope to encourage collaborations between plant biologists and comparative psychologists by familiarizing the reader with issues in the study of learning faced by those working with animals. These issues include no consistent definition of learning phenomena and an overreliance on the use of cognition. We suggested that greater collaborative efforts be made between plant biologists and comparative psychologists if the study of plant learning is to be fully intergraded into the mainstream behavior theory.

Plant behaviour: an evolutionary response to the environment?

“…Mimosa pudica is the most studied plant from the ‘cognitive’ point of view. Many authors have conducted interesting studies on the response of M. pudica to environmental stimuli (De Luccia, 2012; Gagliano et al, 2014; Volkov et al, 2014; Abramson & Chicas‐Mosier, 2016; Simon et al, 2016; Reed‐Guy et al, 2017; Gagliano et al, 2018). In particular, the plant closes its leaves suddenly when exposed to the stress of falling (Gagliano et al, 2014).…”

Conceptualizing agency: Folkpsychological and folkcommunicative perspectives on plants

“…Second, the nature and development of conceptual knowledge surrounding plants and plant-human interactions has recently emerged as a topic of inquiry in cognitive psychology (Wertz & Wynn, 2014a, 2014b. At the same time, biologists are introducing the question of plant intelligence to psychology (Abramson & Chicas-Mosier, 2016;Cvrčková et al, 2016;Marder, 2012;Trewavas, 2016). Constructs that are central to psychological theories of domain-specific conceptual organization, such as agency or intelligence, are increasingly complicated by the documentation of sophisticated plant behaviors that challenge anthropocentric definitions of those terms.…”

Learning from an Intelligent Mechanosensing System of Plants

“…The sensitivity of the mechanosensor is up to 50.17 kPa −1 (0–70 Pa), being highly comparable to other reported flexible pressure sensors and attributed to the high roughness of the leaflet structure. As a result, the LOD of the sensor is ≈10.4 Pa, which equals the weight of a ≈10 µL water droplet on a surface of 10 mm 2 , comparable to the sensitivity of the natural Mimosa leaf . The consistent resistance changes with pressure applied on the surface of the pressure sensor can be maintained after 10 000 loading–unloading cycles, implying a long lifetime and reliability.…”