Discover - USA (2020-01 & 2020-02)

A Bee Plus

in Math

BY SARAH WHITE

i

Honeybees caused quite a buzz this year when three

separate studies showed they possess some of the same

mathematical abilities as humans, despite much tinier brains.

In February, research in Science Advances indicated honeybees

could learn to add and subtract. To teach the bees arithmetic,

cognitive scientists set up a Y-shaped box for the bees to fly

through. When a bee entered the box at the bottom of the Y, it

saw blue or yellow shapes. If the shapes were blue, the bees were

trained to fly down an arm of the Y toward a picture with one

additional shape to receive a sucrose reward; the other arm had a

bitter drink instead. If the shapes were yellow, bees were rewarded

for choosing the picture with one fewer shape.

In June, two other studies using mostly black-and-white pictures

in similar Y-shaped boxes showed that bees understood numerical

symbols and could consistently choose specific quantities, not just

relatively greater or lesser amounts.

How bees use their arithmetic skills remains unclear, though

many animals make use of concepts like more, less and zero to

find areas with the most food and fewest predators. Bees’ skills

could benefit us, too, since understanding how they count and

compute — despite having around 1/100,000 the neurons of

human brains — could help researchers design better computers.

Researchers used experimental

setups like this one to test bees’

mathematical abilities.

1-2-3, Easy as A-Bee-See

FR

OM

TO

P:^ G

EM

MA

TA

RL

AC

H/D

ISC

OV

ER

;^ JA

Y^ S

MIT

H

32

➊

Bee enters

chamber after

learning to link a sign

(“N”) with a certain

number of symbols

(2, for example).

➋

If bee selects

incorrect number of

symbols, it gets access

to a bitter drink. ➌

Selecting

correct number

leads bee to a sweet

reward.

64 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM