Symbolic representation of numerosity by honeybees ( Apis mellifera ): matching characters to small quantities

Abstract

The assignment of a symbolic representation to a specific numerosity is a fundamental requirement for humans solving complex mathematical calculations used in diverse applications such as algebra, accounting, physics and everyday commerce. Here we show that honeybees are able to learn to match a sign to a numerosity, or a numerosity to a sign, and subsequently transfer this knowledge to novel numerosity stimuli changed in colour properties, shape and configuration. While honeybees learned the associations between two quantities (two; three) and two signs (N-shape; inverted T-shape), they failed at reversing their specific task of sign-to-numerosity matching to numerosity-to-sign matching and vice versa (i.e. a honeybee that learned to match a sign to a number of elements was not able to invert this learning to match the numerosity of elements to a sign). Thus, while bees could learn the association between a symbol and numerosity, it was linked to the specific task and bees could not spontaneously extrapolate the association to a novel, reversed task. Our study therefore reveals that the basic requirement for numerical symbolic representation can be fulfilled by an insect brain, suggesting that the absence of its spontaneous emergence in animals is not due to cognitive limitation.

Spontaneous quantity discrimination of artificial flowers by foraging honeybees

“…Appetitive-aversive differential conditioning consists of rewarding an individual for a correct choice and providing an aversive outcome for an incorrect choice (Avargues- Weber et al, 2010a;Chittka et al, 2003). When trained with appetitive-aversive differential conditioning, bees can learn the rules of 'greater than' and 'less than' with the quantities 0-6, quantitatively value zero numerosity (Howard et al, 2018a), discriminate between quantities in the OFS and AMS range (Bortot et al, 2019a;Howard et al, 2019c), perform simple addition and subtraction with quantities 1-5 (Howard et al, 2019a;Howard et al, 2019b), transfer discrete numerical values to continuous size tasks (Bortot et al, 2019b preprint) and match small quantities of 2 or 3 with symbolic characters (Howard et al, 2019d). Recently, the difference in numeric discrimination when bees were trained with appetitive-only or with appetitive-aversive differential conditioning was investigated (Howard et al, 2019c); it appears that bees perform significantly better when trained using the latter.…”

Surpassing the subitizing threshold: appetitive–aversive conditioning improves discrimination of numerosities in honeybees

“…Bees demonstrated significant success in novel problems and thus demonstrated simple arithmetic abilities when trained with appetitive-aversive differential conditioning (Howard et al, 2019a). Honeybees have also demonstrated the capacity to learn to match signs (abstract symbols) with quantities when trained with appetitive-aversive differential conditioning (Howard et al, 2019b). These results are probably due to the use of appetitive-aversive differential conditioning during training and thus in this study we formally tested and compared the numerical discrimination ability of bees when trained with appetitive or appetitive-aversive differential conditioning.…”

Summary of Seven More Studies on Numerosity Abilities in an Ant, Four of Them Relating to Human Competence

“…The honeybee could associate symbols such as shapes with 2 or 3 dots (Howard et al, 2019c). Pigeons could associate visual symbols with up to 4 elements (Xia et al, 2000) and a parrot (Psittacus erithacus) could associate vocal and visual symbols with up to 6 elements (Pepperberg, 2006a, b).…”