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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.
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.
Memorization of the correct and incorrect answers is all that is needed for the described (too small of a sample size to be considered an) "experiment".
How far /. has fallen...
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Damn, I gotta get some bees!
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.
Imagine a Beewulf.... I'll just see myself out now.
Yeah. Should have seen the results of putting the sugar and quinine in opposite spots on the last test just to control for this. If they follow the cues, thru did math. If they follow the smells, then this study is worthless.
Addition and subtraction is often rather instinctual. What makes it difficult, is when we symbolize the numbers in an abstract base, and use symbolic representations of addition and subtraction.
so
1 = *
2 = **
So if we say put * and ** together we get *** no problem. However saying 1 + 2 = 3 requires higher brain power. Because the symbolic numbers is more abstract and doesn't always mean the same thing.
so
1 = A^
2 = #$
So if we put A and #$ together we get possible combinations of A#$, #A$, #$A, A$#, $A#, $#A but we still have 3 characters. However a character is more abstract then just a * it is just the same thing, and we know instinctively what would happen if we add or subtract the same thing.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I also expect the inverse too. We humans are not as smart as we think we are also.
A lot of our actions and responses is more instinctive then intellectual. Political/Religious/Sports Teams/Text Editors/Cell Phones leaning is less about an intellectual response to the policies,rules and teachings. But the instinctive need to be part of group, and be protective of such group.
An Evangelical and an Atheist (Both English Speaking Americans) will normally be diametrically opposed to each other. However we take these same people and put them somewhere where they are surrounded by Non English speaking foreigners who are neither Evangelical or Athiest, they will probably be rather close friends for a while, as they will classify themselves as English Speaking Americans first and their Religion secondly, and stick together for a while. This is instinctive not intellectual.
Or back in my elementary school days. K-4 were separated by 6 schools, 5th and 6th grade was combined into one school. For the first couple of weeks I befriended some kids, who I never got along with and didn't really like in K-4 for the sole reason that they were in my K-4 and I knew who they were. Only to make new friends/allegiances later.
There are a wealth of other behaviors that are instinctual which seem like intellectual activities, from diet, sexual activity, grooming needs....
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
If I throw you an apple, and you reach out and catch it, we'll all be extremely unimpressed. And yet, if someone sitting there watching, pulled out paper and pensil and started writing out the formulas that we each just unconsciously used to do all of the physical activity that we did while tossing and catching an apple, it'd look quite complex.
For whatever reason, mathematics is universal, built-in to everything within the universe. Each species has it's own method of going about life. It's literally impossible for any species to go about life without acting in some mathematical way.
That we are able to detect that the bees are doing math, means that we've only caught onto a way that they do it, that we can recognize. Who's to say that they're not preforming mathematics at levels that we're unable to detect?
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
I am so stealing (and modifying) your example for my philosophy of science classes.
It is one thing to say that bees interact with the world mathematically, and another to say that they understand math.
I don't see how science can make the jump from the former to the latter in a way warranted by measurement.
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.
They've "discovered" that bees can tell colors and tastes.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I misread it as "Bee Gees", and a tune started playing in my head: "Ah, Ah, Ah, counting to five, counting to five..."
Table-ized A.I.
Except that as the summary says, it wasn't merely counting items. It also involved translating color into an arithmetic operation, so there was a symbolic representation of addition and subtraction. I can't speak to the rest of the experiment's design, but if the results are valid, it would seem that the bees do have some amount of understanding of the abstract concepts.