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SUMMARY:Decentralized mechanisms of collective behavior in social insects
LOCATION:Anatomy/Zoology Building W118
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20162001T000000
UID:2026-04-20-16-52-15@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260420T165215
Description:Insect societies are the leading examples of collective cogniti
 on by social groups. Much like a single animal\, a colony of ants can eval
 uate its surroundings\, process information\, and make decisions. Cognitio
 n emerges from a network of interacting ants\, just as individual cognitio
 n emerges from interactions among neurons in the brain. The special appeal
  of these societies is that their parts—individual insects—are themsel
 ves complex cognitive entities\, providing a unique opportunity to study t
 he interplay between information processing at these two levels. In this t
 alk I will show how individual behavioral rules and communication networks
  allow many poorly informed ants to make effective collective decisions. I
  will further show how colonies amplify the limited cognitive capacity of 
 single ants and how they evade certain irrational consequences of individu
 al choice. Finally\, I will consider the limits of collective cognition by
  exploring when it can improve performance by integrating multiple agents\
 , and when it can instead lead to harmful information cascades. 4:00 pm
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