Bees can add and subtract

Scientists have discovered that bees can perform basic mathematical calculations, which helps to better understand the relationship between brain size and power.

Based on their discovery that bees can understand the concept of zero, Australian and French researchers attempted to verify whether bees could perform arithmetic operations such as addition and subtraction.

Mathematical problem solving requires a sophisticated level of knowledge, involving complex number management, long-term rules, and short-term working memory.

The revelation that even the miniature brain of a bee can understand basic mathematical operations has implications for the future development of artificial intelligence, especially to enhance the rapid learning.

Led by researchers from "RMIT University" in Melbourne, Australia, this new study showed that bees could learn to recognize colors as symbolic representations for addition and subtraction, and that they were the only ones in the world. they could use this information to solve arithmetic problems.

Adrian Dyer, badociate professor at RMIT, explains that digital operations such as addition and subtraction are complex because they require two levels of processing.

"You need to be able to keep the rules of addition and subtraction in your long-term memory, while mentally manipulating a set of specific numbers in your short-term memory," says Dyer.

"In addition, our bees have also used their short term memory to solve arithmetic problems, since they have learned to recognize more or less abstract concepts instead of receiving visual aids," explains there.

The researcher points out that his findings suggest that advanced digital cognition can be found much more widely in nature in nonhuman animals than previously thought.

"If mathematics does not require a mbadive brain, there could also be new ways to incorporate interactions of long-term rules and working memory into designs in order to improve the quality of life." 39, rapid learning of new problems by AI, "he says.

There is considerable debate about whether animals know or can acquire skills in complex numbers. Many species can understand the difference between quantities and use it to feed, make decisions and solve problems; but digital cognition, such as exact number and arithmetic operations, requires a more sophisticated level of processing.

Primates, birds and spiders can also add and / or subtract

Previous studies have shown that some primates, birds, babies and even spiders can add and / or subtract. The new research, published in & # 39;Progress of science& # 39 ;, add the bees to this list.

The experiment, conducted by Scarlett Howard, a PhD researcher at RMIT's Bio Inspired Digital Detection Laboratory (BIDS-Lab), included training individual bees to move in a Y-shaped labyrinth.

The bees received a sweet water reward when they made the right choice in the labyrinth and got a bitter tasting quinine solution if the choice was incorrect. Bees will return to a place if it provides a good source of food; they therefore return several times in the experimental setting to collect nutrients and continue to learn.

When a bee was crossing the maze entrance, she saw a set of elements, between 1 and 5 shapes. The shapes were blue, which meant that the bee had to be added, or yellow, which meant that the bee had to be subtracted.

After seeing the initial number, the bee would fly through a hole in a decision chamber where she could choose to fly to the left or right of the labyrinth.

One side had an incorrect solution to the problem and the other had the correct solution of more or less one. The correct answer has been changed randomly throughout the experiment to prevent bees from learning to visit only one side of the maze.

At the beginning of the experiment, the bees made random choices until they could find a way to solve the problem. Finally, in more than 100 learning tests that lasted 4 to 7 hours, bees learned that blue meant +1, while yellow meant -1. The bees could then apply the rules to the new numbers.

Scarlett Howard points out that the ability to do basic mathematics has been critical to the historical flourishing of human societies, with evidence that Egyptians and Babylonians used arithmetic around 2000 BC.

"At the present time, kids are learning that one more symbol means that you have to add some, while a less symbol means you subtract," he says.

"Our results show that many brains can probably achieve the complex understanding of mathematical symbols as a language, and this helps explain how many human cultures have independently developed digital skills," he concludes.