What is the effect of different

genres of music on the rate at

which a hermit crab m

oves?

Background Research

The hermit crabs have a very complex brain. Steffen Harzsch and Bill S Hansson wrote, “The primary olfactory centers in this species dominate the brain and are composed of many elongate olfactory glomeruli. The secondary olfactory centers that receive an input from olfactory projection neurons are almost equally large as the olfactory lobes and are organized into parallel neuropil lamellae. The architecture of the optic neuropils and those areas associated with antenna two suggest that C. clypeatus has visual and mechanosensory skills that are comparable to those of marine Crustacea. [..] In parallel to previous behavioral findings of a good sense of aerial olfaction in C. clypeatus, our results indicate that in fact their central olfactory pathway is most prominent, indicating that olfaction is a major sensory modality that these brains process. Interestingly, the secondary olfactory neuropils of insects, the mushroom bodies, also display a layered structure (vertical and medial lobes), superficially similar to the lamellae in the secondary olfactory centers of C. clypeatus. More detailed analyses with additional markers will be necessary to explore the question if these similarities have evolved convergently with the establishment of superb aerial olfactory abilities or if this design goes back to a shared principle in the common ancestor of Crustacea and Hexapoda.”(30 June 2008)

Introduction and Background

The land hermit crabs, coenobita clypeatus, are not crabs at all they are f rom the inf ra-order amanura. The rate in which the hermit crab walked, was tested by taping a string, on a roll, to the hermit crab shell, and giving the crab two minutes to walk f reely to the music, pulling more string f rom the roll the f arther it walked. Hopefully this experiment would prove whether or not a specifi c genre of music inspires more brain f unction. When two minutes were up the distance of sting pulled off the roll was measured giving the distance the hermit crab walked in two minutes. The purpose of this experiment was to see what genres of music would inspire f aster f rom the hermit crabs. I expected the classical music to have more eff ect, being that classical music is said to inspire more brain f unction.

Experimental Design Diagram

General Topic/Subject of Experiment: Test the effect of different genres of music on hermit crabs.

ISEF – Science Category:

Research Question: 1. What is the effect of different genres of music on the rate at which a hermit crab moves? Developing Hypothesis: My hypothesis is that the classical music would make the hermit crabs move at a faster rate. IV: music

Levels (IV) What are you changing/ manipulating?

No music Classic Country(slow) Upbeat country

Rock ‘n roll

Number of Trails

3 3 3 3 3

DV: rate in which hermit crab walked C: time, lighting, and back ground

Materials and Equipment

Materials and Equipment

 3 hermit crabs, a roll of 30 meters of dental floss, tape, timer, speaker, computer.

 

Safety Equipment

 Water

Safety Considerations:

Hermit crabs pinch so it’s good to keep cool water around water will make them release their grip.

 

Procedures   

PROCEDURES

Set-up:   1Taped dental floss to the shell of the hermit crab 2 played music and timed hermit crab 3 made observations  Conducting Experiment & Recording Observations:1 I started by taping the dental floss to the hermit crabs shell then I places the hermit crab on the ground and secured the roll of floss and played music for two minutes 2 I repeated this for all three hermit crabs 3 I did one control with no music 4 when the two minutes was up I measured how much floss was pulled off the roll 6 the amount of floss was the distance 7 Processing & Analyzing Data:  1 I processed the data by taking the measurements and getting the mean 2 after I determined the mean I divided it by 2 to get the inches per minute 3 I used inches per minute as the rate of the hermit crab 

Data

What is the effect of different genres of music on the rate at which a hermit crab moves?

distance (inches)

Average rate (inch per minute)

genre a b c1no music 63 32 48 47.67 23.84

2classic 77 65 57 66.33 33.17

3slow country 68 68 72 69.33 34.67

4upbeat country 79 73 72 74.67 37.34

5rock 'n roll 77 72 66 71.67 35.84

Data analysis

05

10152025303540

1 2 3 4 5

what is the effect of different genres of music on the rate that a hermit

crab walks?

Series1

Conclusion

The purpose of my experiment was to test the effect of different music on the rate in which a hermit crab moved. When comparing results of my experiment the (upbeat) country music had the most effect. For the distance each crab walked in the two minutes the mean for the (upbeat) country was 74.67 inches. There was no mode. The range was 73-79 inches. The mean for rock‘n roll was 71.67 inches. There was no mode. The range was 66-77inches. The mean for the slow country was 69.33inches. The mode was 68 inches. The range was 69-70inches. The mean for the classic was 66.33 inches. There was no mode. The range was from 57-77 inches. For my control I did no music once so ever and the mean 47.67 inches. There was no mode. The range was from 32-63 inches. What was supposed to happen was the genre which inspired more brain function would make them move faster. It did not happen as so the hermit crabs started walking to the beat of the music and the up beat country had the quickest beat. My hypothesis was that the classical music would make the hermit crabs move at a faster rate. My experiment showed that hermit crabs are of higher intelligence then expected.

Work cited

Harzsch, Steffen, and Bill S. Hansson. "Brain Architecture in the Terrestrial Hermit Crab Coenobita Clypeatus (Anomura, Coenobitidae), a Crustacean with a Good Aerial Sense of Smell." Brain Architecture in the Terrestrial Hermit Crab Coenobita Clypeatus (Anomura, Coenobitidae), a Crustacean with a Good Aerial Sense of Smell. 30 June 2008. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2459186/>.