Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2024 Feb;61:101155. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2023.101155. Epub 2023 Dec 16.
Studies of division of labor have focused mainly on individual workers performing tasks. Here I propose a shift in perspective: colonies perform tasks, and task performance should be evaluated at the colony level. I then review studies from the recent literature from this perspective, on topics including evaluating task performance; specialization and efficiency; flexibility and task performance; response threshold models; and variation in behavior arising from diverse sensory experiences and learning. The use of specialized workers is only one of a variety of strategies that colonies may follow in performing tasks. The ability of colonies to produce consistent responses and to compensate for changes in the labor pool supports the idea of a task allocation system that precedes specialization. The colony-level perspective raises new questions about how tasks are done and the strategies used to improve colony task performance.
分工的研究主要集中在个体工人执行任务上。在这里，我提出了一个视角的转变：群体执行任务，应该在群体层面上评估任务绩效。然后，我从这个角度回顾了最近文献中的研究，主题包括评估任务绩效；专业化和效率；灵活性和任务绩效；反应阈值模型；以及由于不同的感官体验和学习而产生的行为变化。使用专门化的工人只是群体执行任务的多种策略之一。群体能够产生一致的反应并补偿劳动力变化的能力支持了在专业化之前存在任务分配系统的观点。群体层面的视角提出了关于如何完成任务以及用于提高群体任务绩效的策略的新问题。
