ABSTRACT
Virtually all mobile organisms are capable of approaching objects that are resources to them. The execution of this capacity is called objectorientation. If generality were used as the criterion for importance, object orientation could be considered to be truly the most important of all behaviors. Object orientation has 3 major components: ranging, local search, and approach. The pattern of locomotion which results is strikingly different from ranging behavior. Search as a general term includes the entire alternative class of behaviors resorted to whenever localization is ruled out. Once the conspicuous difference between the straight ranging path and the convoluted local search path is firmly engrained into students’ mind, as a group discuss possible adaptive functions of local search behaviors in natural environments.
