Animals are considered the only living beings capable of associative learning, but new research led by the University of Western Australia has found that plants can also “...learn about their environment by making links between events.”
A press release issued by the school states, “Through a range of behavioral experiments, the team was able to provide convincing evidence that plants were capable of learning a particular association between the occurrence of one event and the anticipation of another.”
The study involved a garden pea which researchers placed in a Y-shaped maze and taught to associate the motion of a fan with light. After a while they noticed that the plant would be able to identify the location and timing of light based on the fan’s breeze and will begin to shift in that direction.
The release goes on to say, “The results showed the seedlings were able to learn and choose the best growth direction for survival by correctly predicting the occurrence of light once it was removed.”
Researchers have indicated that the outcome was unexpected. As such, they hope the findings will encourage a broader discussion about the possible cognitive abilities in different life forms.
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