*** Appendix - Evidence for blocking in invertebrates

Back to: Does the phenomenon of blocking enable us to identify which animals have expectations?
*** SUMMARY of conclusions reached References

Blocking has not yet been confirmed in insects.

In response to a query as to whether blocking has been confirmed yet in any invertebrates, Dr Bjorn Brembs (personal email, 22 December 2002) wrote:

As far as I have heard, the jury is still out, whether there is blocking, although those that have found it still claim that there is no dispute about their data. There are a few finds, but alternative explanations have not been ruled out, yet. So far, blocking, if it is there, is definitely not as universal and general as in vertebrates, at the least.

I also emailed Bill Nuttley, a neurobiologist whose specialty is the nematode worm C. elegans, and asked him whether blocking had been confirmed or disconfirmed in this worm. I received the following reply (Nuttley, personal email, 18 July 2003):

As for blocking, a student has been looking at that and although the trends are all encouraging and the data looks pretty good, we fall just short of making stats. A few changes to the protocol and I think we will be able to demonstrate blocking, but so far no.

Back to: Does the phenomenon of blocking enable us to identify which animals have expectations?
*** SUMMARY of conclusions reached References