A FORAY INTO THE UMWELT OF A PREDATORY BACTERIUM
Abstract
The concept of Umwelt refers to the phenomenal world of an organism, defined by its senses and what it does to stay alive, thrive and reproduce. Umwelt had a powerful influence on how the scientific study of animal behavior under natural conditions developed in the middle decades of the 20th century and currently is enjoying renewed interest in the field of comparative cognition. Traditionally, animals have been the exclusive focus of Umwelt-based analysis. This chapter focuses on Myxococcus xanthus, a predatory bacterium with an unusual, complex social lifestyle. The presentation is intended to show that the Umwelt concept can be useful in unpacking, in radically alien forms of life, processes regarded as cognitive in animals and in a context (predator–prey interactions) long important to ethology and comparative psychology, where Umwelt has done most work.
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BibTeX
@misc{lyon2026foray,
title = {{A FORAY INTO THE UMWELT OF A PREDATORY BACTERIUM}},
author = {Pamela Lyon},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/gwakx_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/gwakx_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A FORAY INTO THE UMWELT OF A PREDATORY BACTERIUM
AU - Pamela Lyon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/gwakx_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/gwakx_v1/
AB - The concept of Umwelt refers to the phenomenal world of an organism, defined by its senses and what it does to stay alive, thrive and reproduce. Umwelt had a powerful influence on how the scientific study of animal behavior under natural conditions developed in the middle decades of the 20th century and currently is enjoying renewed interest in the field of comparative cognition. Traditionally, animals have been the exclusive focus of Umwelt-based analysis. This chapter focuses on Myxococcus xanthus, a predatory bacterium with an unusual, complex social lifestyle. The presentation is intended to show that the Umwelt concept can be useful in unpacking, in radically alien forms of life, processes regarded as cognitive in animals and in a context (predator–prey interactions) long important to ethology and comparative psychology, where Umwelt has done most work.
ER -