In this video we see the bee inspect each card on the screen, before making a correct choice on the card presenting an even number of 12 shapes. Play We trained honeybees to choose even numbers. So a large and complex human brain consisting of 86 billion neurons, and a miniature insect brain with about 960,000 neurons, could both categorise numbers by parity.ĭoes this mean the parity task was less complex than we had previously thought? To find the answer, we turned to bio-inspired technology. Our results showed the miniature brains of honeybees were able to understand the concepts of odd and even. Honeybees landed on a platform to drink sugar water during the experiment. Impressively, they categorised the new numbers of 11 or 12 elements as odd or even with an accuracy of about 70%. We then tested each bee on new numbers not shown during the training. Their learning bias towards odd numbers was the opposite of humans, who categorise even numbers more quickly. The bees trained to associate odd numbers with sugar water learnt quicker. Remarkably, the respective groups learnt at different rates. We trained individual bees using comparisons of odd versus even numbers (with cards presenting 1-10 printed shapes) until they chose the correct answer with 80% accuracy. Here we show a honeybee being trained to associate ‘even’ stimuli with a reward over 40 training choices. The other group was trained to associate odd numbers with sugar water, and even numbers with quinine. One was trained to associate even numbers with sugar water and odd numbers with a bitter-tasting liquid (quinine). To teach bees a parity task, we separated individuals into two groups. Studies have shown honeybees can learn to order quantities, perform simple addition and subtraction, match symbols with quantities and relate size and number concepts. Understanding if and how other animals can recognise (or can learn to recognise) odd and even numbers could tell us more about our own history with parity. It is not obvious why parity might be important beyond its use in mathematics, so the origins of these biases remain unclear. These studies suggest humans may have learnt biases and/or innate biases regarding odd and even numbers, which may have arisen either through evolution, cultural transmission, or a combination of both. And research has found children typically associate the word “even” with “right” and “odd” with “left”. We are also faster, and more accurate, when categorising numbers as even compared to odd. For example, we tend to respond faster to even numbers with actions performed by our right hand and to odd numbers with actions performed by our left hand. Interestingly, humans demonstrate accuracy, speed, language and spatial relationship biases when categorising numbers as odd or even. Parity tasks (such as odd and even categorisation) are considered abstract and high-level numerical concepts in humans. In a new study, published on April 29 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, we show honeybees can learn to do this. Until now odd and even categorisation, also called parity classification, had never been shown in non-human animals. If we have an unpaired element left over, that means the number of objects was odd. Similarly, when dealing with real-world objects we can use pairing. Or we may divide a number by two – where any whole number outcome means the number is even, otherwise it must be odd. We may memorise the rule that numbers ending in one, three, five, seven, or nine are odd while numbers ending in zero, two, four, six, or eight are even. And there are many ways to categorise numbers as even or odd. “Two, four, six, eight – bog in, do not wait.”Īs children, we learn numbers can either be even or odd. Madras HC annuls 2019 Lok Sabha victory of lone AIADMK MP Ravindhranath Kumar.France riots: Why Hindu nationalists in India are backing the French far right.Rush Hour podcast: Christian school principal assaulted by Hindutva mob in Pune.Sweetener aspartame is set to be classified as possibly carcinogenic – but there’s no need to panic.Watch: Couple recreates Bollywood hit ‘Rimjhim Gire Sawan’ scene-by-scene on a rainy day in Mumbai.‘Invite you, then mistreat you’: Visa, border regimes keep Global South out of international events.Fiction: A Sikh woman in Singapore finally comes out of her brother’s shadow to live her life.What the murders of two women say about the dangerous, ‘heart-broken’ young men of India.How Gujarati merchants helped Zambia attain independence. Why the Uniform Civil Code has few takers in the North East.In film about Ravish Kumar and TV news crisis, ‘an ode to idealism through extremely hard times’.Pune school principal assaulted allegedly by members of Hindutva group.
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