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Casually dropped this tidbit (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by ickplant@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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You can read about how researchers discovered that here.

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

With the way they tested, couldn't it just have been the difference between "more white" and "less white" and not an actual numerical understanding?

[-] NekoRogue@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

And they weren't just going for the empty picture because it was new and interesting: Another group of bees trained to always choose the larger number tended to pick the nonzero image in this test.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 16 points 2 years ago

It's the same method but reversed rewards so it could still be that they were attracted because more shapes = more black. Was the ratio of color difference consistent each time or were the shapes random sizes?

[-] ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

I mean that's just the opposite conditioning. The bees that chose the pictures with more spots were rewarded for choosing the pictures with more spots. So they'd be conditioned to go for the picture with more spots.