Quantifying division of labor: borrowing tools from sociology, sociobiology, information theory, landscape ecology, and biogeography

Gorelick, Root; Bertram, Susan M.

doi:10.1007/s00040-007-0923-z

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…We replicated each treatment 50 times and used Shannon mutual information [as proposed by Gorelick et al (27); see Materials and Methods] to measure the amount of division of labor that evolved within the colonies. Table 2 summarizes our results.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To measure the amount of division of labor present within a colony, we use Shannon mutual information as proposed by Gorelick et al (27). Shannon mutual information is defined as: IðN; MÞ = X i ∈ N; j ∈ M p ij * ln p ij p i * p j where i is an organism, N is the set of organisms that performed a task within the colony, j is a type of task, and M is the set of types of tasks.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Task-switching costs promote the evolution of division of labor and shifts in individuality

Goldsby

Dornhaus

Kerr

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

111

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From microbes to humans, the success of many organisms is achieved by dividing tasks among specialized group members. The evolution of such division of labor strategies is an important aspect of the major transitions in evolution. As such, identifying specific evolutionary pressures that give rise to group-level division of labor has become a topic of major interest among biologists. To overcome the challenges associated with studying this topic in natural systems, we use actively evolving populations of digital organisms, which provide a unique perspective on the de novo evolution of division of labor in an open-ended system. We provide experimental results that address a fundamental question regarding these selective pressures: Does the ability to improve group efficiency through the reduction of task-switching costs promote the evolution of division of labor? Our results demonstrate that as task-switching costs rise, groups increasingly evolve division of labor strategies. We analyze the mechanisms by which organisms coordinate their roles and discover strategies with striking biological parallels, including communication, spatial patterning, and task-partitioning behaviors. In many cases, under high task-switching costs, individuals cease to be able to perform tasks in isolation, instead requiring the context of other group members. The simultaneous loss of functionality at a lower level and emergence of new functionality at a higher level indicates that task-switching costs may drive both the evolution of division of labor and also the loss of lower-level autonomy, which are both key components of major transitions in evolution. digital evolution | problem decomposition | specialization | task partitioning | fraternal transition

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Task-switching costs promote the evolution of division of labor and shifts in individuality

Goldsby

Dornhaus

Kerr

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…DOL was quantified using the index established in Gorelick et al (2004); for updated definitions see also Gorelick and Bertram 2007;Dornhaus et al 2009). …”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workers ‘specialized’ on inactivity: Behavioral consistency of inactive workers and their role in task allocation

Charbonneau

Dornhaus

2015

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Social insect colonies are often considered to be highly efficient collective systems, with division of labor at the root of their ecological success. However, in many species, a large proportion of a colony's workers appear to spend their time completely inactive. The role of this inactivity for colony function remains unclear. Here, we investigate how inactivity is distributed among workers and over time in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. We show that the level of inactivity is consistent for individual workers, but differs significantly among workers, that is, some workers effectively specialize on 'inactivity'. We also show that workers have circadian rhythms, although intra-nest tasks tend to be performed uniformly across the whole day. Differences in circadian rhythms, or workers taking turns resting (i.e., working in shifts), cannot explain the observation that some workers are consistently inactive. Using extensive individual-level data to describe the overall structure of division of labor, we show that 'inactive workers' form a group distinct from other task groups. Hierarchical clustering suggests that inactivity is the primary variable in differentiating both workers and tasks. Our results underline the importance of inactivity as a behavioral state and the need for further studies on its evolution.

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“…In social insects, network models generally treat the workers as nodes, which are connected to each other via communicative interactions (edges), although Fewell (2003) recently suggested that tasks can also be treated as nodes (also see Gorelick and Bertram, 2007). Previous network models of task allocation have assessed how a colonys workers can be effectively distributed among several different tasks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Worker connectivity: a simulation model of variation in worker communication and its effects on task performance

O’Donnell¹,

Bulova

2007

Insect. Soc.

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We develop a simulation model of worker connectivity to analyze how variation in worker communication can influence task performance. The model generates predictions about how colony demography, worker communicative behavior, and worker cognition will affect the rate of recruitment of workers to a new task. The model explores some mechanisms for modulating the recruitment of workers. Under the conditions of our model-probabilistic interactions that lower workers response thresholds to tasks-worker recruitment follows a logistic growth pattern. The rate of recruiting workers increases exponentially toward an inflection point when 50 % of the available force has been activated, then decreases toward the upper asymptote (all workers recruited). Many relevant features of colony design and worker behavior, including group size, probability of interacting, and strength of interaction effects on receivers, show a positive but decelerating effect on the rate of worker recruitment. We also identify features of worker cognition that can influence task recruitment, focusing on the time course of workers memories about previous interactions. Both learning (e.g., sensitization) and forgetting about previous interactions can influence the rate of worker recruitment to a task. The model suggests that worker cognition may be shaped by natural selection on task performance at the colony level. Forgetting about interactions may be especially costly, because it leads to unpredictable patterns of worker recruitment. We also show that social inhibition, when coupled with excitatory interactions, can effectively modulate worker recruitment at the colony level.

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Quantifying division of labor: borrowing tools from sociology, sociobiology, information theory, landscape ecology, and biogeography

Cited by 29 publications

References 29 publications

Task-switching costs promote the evolution of division of labor and shifts in individuality

Task-switching costs promote the evolution of division of labor and shifts in individuality

Workers ‘specialized’ on inactivity: Behavioral consistency of inactive workers and their role in task allocation

Worker connectivity: a simulation model of variation in worker communication and its effects on task performance

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