Bees Can Solve Math Problems With Addition and Subtraction

According to a new study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers from Australia and France have shown that bees can perform simple arithmetic, adding and subtracting small numbers by studying color-coded shapes. CNET reports: To test the buzzers' ability to perform arithmetic, the team used a three-chambered maze shaped like a Y, training bees to enter through a hole into a small chamber where they would see their first stimulus: blue or yellow shapes on a plain, grey background. The number of shapes varied between 1 and 5 and the color of the shapes told the bee whether it needed to add one (blue) or subtract one (yellow) from the initial number. The bee then flew into a subsequent chamber which presented both a correct option and an incorrect option. To train the bees, the correct option rewarded the critters with a drop of tasty sugar solution -- a delightful dessert for the bee. On the other hand, selecting the incorrect solution resulted in a nasty drop of quinine -- like a slab of Brussels sprouts slathered in chocolate.

The testing procedure itself focused on 14 bees undergoing four tests of 10 choices. The tests themselves were "non-reinforced," so they didn't receive reward or punishment when selecting their "answers" during testing. Because the bees were subjected to two answers each time, the expectation is that -- purely by chance -- they would select the correct answer 50 percent of the time. But the bees performed significantly better than chance would predict, selecting the correct answer around 65 percent of the time.

Comments

Re:Did they try this with people?

[omnichad]

Exactly. How do we know there's no pheromones at play after multiple runs through the puzzle? Or some ability to smell the sugar. Or any of a number of confounding factors.

This isn't Pavlovian conditioning.

[denzacar]

Unless you're talking about the "scientists" who've breezed through all those years of school and training without ever picking up on the basics of statistics and probability.
On account of just repeating the correct answers they memorized earlier.

Basically, you could "train" a group of 14 coins to do the same task.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Although, to be fair, they did fuck up on the Pavlovian conditioning as well.
In half of the experiments, "correct answer" was always going straight from the point of entry, not changing the direction.
To make sure bees actually "made choices" - both addition and subtraction were tested for.
Addition choices were blue, while subtraction choices were yellow.

"Amazingly", bees were not only "getting it right" more often if the answer is just "fly straight ahead".
When subtracting, they were "getting it right" more often when the answer demanded flying away from the wrong answer.
Clearly, bees are doing math, right?

Except, experimenters rigged the game.
For addition, "correct answers could be 2, 3, and 5 and the incorrect answers could be 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5".
While for subtraction, "correct answers could be 1, 3, and 4 and the incorrect answers could be 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5".

I.e. When "adding" bees were trained to just go straight if the color is blue, and for 2 out of 5 "answers" that would be the correct answer.
When "subtracting", flying AWAY from the presented option would be the correct answer in 2 out 5 "answers".

Leaving 3 "answers" where the bee would have a 50:50 chance of getting it right.
I.e. 2 answers the bees were conditioned for + 1.5 answers where they'd get it right 50% of the time = getting 3.5 out of 5 answers correctly, or 70%.

I.e. By color conditioning and random choice alone, bees should be getting it correctly more often than most of their measurements show.
Though right smack in the middle of their error bars when accounted for the color conditioning training.
72.1 +/- 3.20% for addition and 67.9 +/- 3.66% for subtraction.

In each of the four tests, the bees performed at a level that was significantly different from chance.
In the addition (same direction) test, the bees chose the correct option of 4 in 72.1 +/- 3.20% (mean +/- SEM) of choices (z = 5.05, P < 0.001; Fig. 2B).
In the other addition (opposite direction) test, the bees chose the correct option of 4 in 66.4 +/- 2.69% of choices (z = 3.81, P < 0.001; Fig. 2B).
In the subtraction (same direction) test, the bees chose the correct option of 2 in 63.6 +/- 2.89% of choices (z = 3.17, P = 0.002; Fig. 2B).
In the other subtraction (opposite direction) test, the bees chose the correct option of 2 in 67.9 +/- 3.66% of choices (z = 4.13, P < 0.001; Fig. 2B).
There was no significant difference between the performance of the bees in any of the four tests (z = -0.887, P = 0.375), demonstrating that the bees performed equally well on all tests.

They've "discovered" that bees can tell colors and tastes.