- Jan 7, 2002
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SYDNEY: A new revelation about the numeracy of insects has come out of a study from the Australian National University.
In an elegantly designed experiment researchers led by Shaowu Zhang, of the university's Vision Centre have shown that, at a glance, bees can discriminate between patterns containing two and three dots.
And, with a bit of tutoring, they can learn to tell the difference between three and four dots. But after that, according to a study detailed today in the journal PloS One, bee maths seems to run out. The team found their honeybees couldn?t reliably tell the difference between four dots and five or six.
Counting landmarks
Earlier work had "demonstrated that bees can count up to four landmarks on their way from their hive to a food source," said Zhang. "This new research shows they can tell the difference between different numbers ? even when we change the pattern, shape or the colour of the dots.?
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/...t-four-say-researchers
In an elegantly designed experiment researchers led by Shaowu Zhang, of the university's Vision Centre have shown that, at a glance, bees can discriminate between patterns containing two and three dots.
And, with a bit of tutoring, they can learn to tell the difference between three and four dots. But after that, according to a study detailed today in the journal PloS One, bee maths seems to run out. The team found their honeybees couldn?t reliably tell the difference between four dots and five or six.
Counting landmarks
Earlier work had "demonstrated that bees can count up to four landmarks on their way from their hive to a food source," said Zhang. "This new research shows they can tell the difference between different numbers ? even when we change the pattern, shape or the colour of the dots.?
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/...t-four-say-researchers
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