However, the statistics were reversed for group one. Group one tended to orient themselves closer to the bottom of the environment; sixty percent of the spiders in group one chose to dwell at or under the five unit mark regularly.
The students conducting this experiment drew a number of conclusions from the data collected. The lack of the discernible pattern in the orientation of the spiders regarding their longitudinal position was an unexpected find. The conclusion reached by the students was that because the environments in which the spiders were contained had such a small circumference, the slightest movement would drastically affect their longitudinal location. Additionally, the height of the container was approximately two to three times as high as the circumference of the container, which is a significant juxtaposition. Therefore, because of the small area of the container, the movements of the spiders appear to be drastic ones, even though they may have only moved a very small amount.
The trend that seemed consistent between groups two and three even though different musical selections were played for those groups can be explained because of the similarities in the music played for the groups. Both the Kruder and Outkast selections had very strong, harsh beats, therefore both vibrating the subjects a lot. The speakers were placed under the spiders, so it did seem likely that the spiders would stay higher in the containers to avoid the foreign vibrations, which they did in these groups. The students concluded that the spiders may have felt confused or threatened by the vibrations that came from the speakers and therefore wanted to get further away from the source. The spiders in group one, which were exposed to the Bach selection, did not have the same desire to escape from the source of the vibrations. The students concluded this is because the vibrations emanated by "Ave Maria" are less invasive, and even speculated that the vibrations were gentle enough from this piece that it may have felt more natural and perhaps even soothing to the spiders.
The students noted that there seemed to be...
The students found that it was more difficult to draw conclusions from results that are obtained through environmental manipulation rather than physical exploitation for a number of reasons, but that to a far lesser degree than the chemical manipulation of the NASA experiments, the environmental manipulation of these spiders did affect their pattern of orientation. These results are evidence that humanity can affect the natural world, according to their findings.
The students still had unanswered questions regarding the experiment. Because the spiders were provided for and isolated in their containers, it was impossible to say whether the music had a negative, positive, or neutral affect on them. The experiment did not answer questions of how noise like music would affect their hunting, mating, and web-building abilities. Additionally, the students could not conclude if the spiders would become immune to the vibrations after a period of time and stop responding to them in unusual ways because the experiment was only conducted for a short period of time. Some of the spiders did orient themselves further from the speakers on the first days of the experiment then gradually move closer to the bottom of the container, so perhaps this is a sign that spiders can adapt to environmental noise.
As a final note, this experiment was conducted with many flaws in design and implementation, as well as imprecise data collection and rather ridiculous conclusions. In a sampling group this small, a 6/4 split is hardly concrete evidence for any conclusions.
Works Cited
Feichtner, J.; Firestone, P.; Markle, K.; Smith, W.; Van Houtte, E. (2001, December 6) Jammin' spider webs. Miami University, Ohio. Accessed online November 22, 2004 at http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall01/FinalArticles/JamminSpiderWebs.html
