Numerical Cognition in Bees and Other Insects

Pahl, Mario; Si, Aung; Zhang, Shaowu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00162

Cited by 85 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The former, approximate and nonverbal capacity is shared across many species (for reviews, see Nieder & Dehaene, 2009;Agrillo & Beran, 2013;Pahl et al, 2013) and, at least in basic form, is thought to be present from birth in humans (e.g., Xu & Spelke, 2000;Lipton & Spelke, 2003).…”

Section: Evolutionary and Cultural Factors In Numerical Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbolic number skills predict growth in nonsymbolic number skills in kindergarteners.

Lyons

Bugden

Zheng³

et al. 2018

Developmental Psychology

111

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There is currently considerable discussion about the relative influences of evolutionary and cultural factors in the development of early numerical skills. In particular, there has been substantial debate and study of the relationship between approximate, nonverbal (approximate magnitude system, AMS) and exact, symbolic (symbolic number system, SNS) representations of number. Here we examined several hypotheses concerning whether, in the earliest stages of formal education, AMS abilities predict growth in SNS abilities, or the other way around. In addition to tasks involving symbolic (Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (dot arrays) number comparisons, we also tested children's ability to translate between the two systems (i.e., mixed-format comparison). Our data included a sample of 539 Kindergarten children (mean=5.17yrs, SD=0.29yrs), with AMS, SNS and mixed comparison skills assessed at the beginning and end of the academic year. In this way, we provide, to the best of our knowledge, the most comprehensive test to date of the direction of influence between the AMS and SNS in early formal schooling. Results were more consistent with the view that SNS abilities at the beginning of Kindergarten lay the foundation for improvement in both AMS abilities and the ability to translate between the two systems. Importantly, we found no evidence to support the reverse. We conclude that, once one acquires a very basic grasp of exact number symbols, it is this understanding of exact number (and perhaps repeated practice therewith) that facilitates growth in the AMS. Though the precise mechanism remains to be understood, these data challenge the widely held view that the AMS scaffolds the acquisition of the SNS.

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Section: Evolutionary and Cultural Factors In Numerical Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbolic number skills predict growth in nonsymbolic number skills in kindergarteners.

Lyons

Bugden

Zheng³

et al. 2018

Developmental Psychology

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…They were later verified in a study showing that the working memory underlying the solving of the DMTS task lasts for approximately 5 s [10], a period that coincides with the duration of other visual and olfactory short-term memories characterized in simpler forms of associative learning in bees [18]. DMTS was also used in categorization experiments aimed at studying the capacity of bees to group images according to broad classes such as 'radial flower', 'plant stems' or 'landscapes' [36] and in experiments on numerosity (reviewed in reference [44]). …”

Section: (A) Sameness/difference Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual learning by miniature brains

2013

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Concepts act as a cornerstone of human cognition. Humans and non-human primates learn conceptual relationships such as 'same', 'different', 'larger than', 'better than', among others. In all cases, the relationships have to be encoded by the brain independently of the physical nature of objects linked by the relation. Consequently, concepts are associated with high levels of cognitive sophistication and are not expected in an insect brain. Yet, various works have shown that the miniature brain of honeybees rapidly learns conceptual relationships involving visual stimuli. Concepts such as 'same', 'different', 'above/below of' or 'left/right are well mastered by bees. We review here evidence about concept learning in honeybees and discuss both its potential adaptive advantage and its possible neural substrates. The results reviewed here challenge the traditional view attributing supremacy to larger brains when it comes to the elaboration of concepts and have wide implications for understanding how brains can form conceptual relations.

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“…Researchers in these fields have found that the ability to discriminate between different numbers of objects appears to be a foundational cognitive ability and have documented this ability in numerous species across the Animal Kingdom. For example, quantity discrimination has been demonstrated experimentally in several species of fish [5,11,[19][20][21], amphibians [8,22,23], birds [18,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], mammals [9,[36][37][38][39][40][41], primates [42][43][44][45], human infants [46][47][48][49] and even some invertebrates [50][51][52]. The only study testing quantity discrimination in a reptile found that although ruin lizards (Podarcis sicula) do spontaneously select the larger quantity of food, they do not spontaneously select the option with a higher number of food items [53].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores

Benson‐Amram

Gilfillan

McComb

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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SummaryPlayback experiments have proven to be a useful tool to investigate the extent to which wild animals understand numerical concepts and the factors that play into their decisions to respond to different numbers of vocalizing conspecifics. In particular, playback experiments have broadened our understanding of the cognitive abilities of historically understudied species that are challenging to test in the traditional laboratory, such as members of the Order Carnivora. Additionally, playback experiments allow us to assess the importance of numerical information versus other ecologically important variables when animals are making adaptive decisions in their natural habitats. Here, webegin by reviewing what we know about quantity discrimination in carnivores from studies conducted in captivity. We then review a series of playback experiments conducted with wild social carnivores, including African lions, spotted hyenas, and wolves, which demonstrate that these animals can assess the number of conspecifics calling and respond based on numerical advantage.We discuss how the wild studies compliment those conducted in captivity and allow us to gain insights into why wild animals may not always respond based solely on differences in quantity. We then consider the key role that individual discrimination and cross-modal recognition play in the 2 ability of animals to assess the number of conspecifics vocalizing nearby. Finally, we explore new directions for future research in this area, highlighting in particular the need for further work on the cognitive basis of numerical assessment skills and experimental paradigms that can be effective in both captive and wild settings.

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Numerical Cognition in Bees and Other Insects

Cited by 85 publications

References 73 publications

Symbolic number skills predict growth in nonsymbolic number skills in kindergarteners.

Symbolic number skills predict growth in nonsymbolic number skills in kindergarteners.

Conceptual learning by miniature brains

Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores

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