Ants&amp;#39; Notion of Zero through the Perception of the Absence of an Odor

2019

IJB

Self Cite

Trained to a smaller number of elements versus a larger one and then tested faced with the larger number and twice the smaller one, one set on the left and the other on the right of the larger number, the ants essentially reacted to the smaller number located on the left of the larger one. Trained to a larger number of elements versus a smaller one and then tested faced with the smaller number and twice the larger one, one set on the left and the other on the right of the smaller number, the ants went preferentially to the larger number located on the right of the smaller one. They similarly reacted when trained to zero versus 2 elements (mostly reacting to the zero element located on the left of the 2 elements), and when trained to 2 elements versus zero element (going essentially to the 2 elements located on the right of the zero element). Thus, the ants responded mostly to the left smaller and the right larger number of elements, and this only when a larger and a smaller respectively number of element was set in the middle. In the absence of the latter, the ants went equally to the left and the right numbers of elements. The ants arrange thus mentally the numbers (amounts) on a scale, a number line, locating the smaller quantities on the left and the larger ones on the right, as do humans and the vertebrates which have already been studied as for this numerosity characteristic. Also, the ants’ accuracy of response decreases with increasing numbers of elements.

Section: Discussion -Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Left to Right Oriented Number Scaling in an Ant

Cammaerts¹,

2019

IJB

Self Cite

“…It has been shown that bees have the notion of zero and correctly locate the zero in an increasing as well as in a decreasing series of numbers (Howard, Avarguès-Weber, Garcia, Greentree, & Dyer, 2018). In ants, besides having pointed out that M. sabuleti workers can distinguish different numbers of elements (Cammaerts, 2008), we have also shown that they have a basic notion of zero using their visual as well as their olfactory perception (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2019a, 2019b. Here, we intended to work again on colonies of M. sabuleti, presenting them either 1 + 1, or 2 + 1, or 3 + 1, or 3 + 2 elements, and looking if they could, each time, add the two presented numbers of elements, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Ants’ Capability of Adding Numbers of Identical Elements

Cammaerts¹,

2019

IJB

Self Cite

Knowing that the workers of the ant Myrmica sabuleti can distinguish different numbers of elements and have a basic notion of zero, we here examine if they can add two numbers of identical elements seen simultaneously. As soon as after three training days, the ants could respond significantly more to the sum of 1 + 1, 2 + 1, 3 + 1, and 3 + 2 elements than to the two initial numbers of elements seen during training and to the wrong sums 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively. Their ability in giving the correct response seemed to somewhat decrease with increasing numbers to add. Twenty-four hours after the removal of the initial numbers presented during training, the ants no longer responded essentially to the correct sum of these numbers.

“…It has been shown that rhesus monkeys (Merritt, Rugani, & Brannon, 2009) and humans (Pinhas & Tzelgov, 2012) locate the zero on a number line, and ordered it at the start of a numerical continuum. Concerning the ant species here studied, its workers locate the zero at the start of an increasing series of elements as well as at the end of a decreasing series of elements (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2019c), and since these ants have a left to right oriented number line (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2019d), it can be deduced that they locate the zero on the left, just at the beginning of their number line.…”

Section: Discussion Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Indeed, when studying the ants' notion of zero (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2019a), we found a conditioning score of 82.5% for the ants' discrimination between 2 and 1 circles. When studying the ants' correct location of the zero (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2019c), we found a conditioning score of 83.3% for the discrimination of 2 vs 1 elements (mean ants' response: 4.0 vs 0.8), and a conditioning score of 82.6% for the discrimination of 1 vs 2 elements (mean ants' response: 3.8 vs 0.8). When studying the ants' arrangement of numbers on their number line (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2020a), we found a conditioning score of 83.4% for the ants' discrimination of 1 vs 2 elements, during their first 48 training hours.…”

Section: Discussion Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Ants Acquire the Notion of Zero through Experiences

Cammaerts¹,

2020

IJB

Self Cite

The workers of the ant Myrmica sabuleti have a concrete notion of zero and locate this zero at the lower end of their mental number line. Here we examined how they acquire such a notion: do they have it natively or do they learn it over their life? We worked on young ants a few weeks old, and used operant conditioning to zero, the latter being a white paper or ‘nothing, no cue’, presented vs a black dot. In a first series of experiments, we showed that young ants do not detain the notion of zero. In a second series of experiments on the same ants, we first tempted learning them the notion of zero by facing them with a filled and an empty food tube during two days. They were then submitted to conditioning to ‘zero’, and they correctly responded to it. Consequently, the ants have not natively the notion of zero but acquire it through experiences.