Bumblebees Proves Small Brains Can Learn Simple Things
Bumblebees have brains that are capable of learning complex things, but not more intelligent than the crows. In the most recent triumph for humankind most loved insects, the research team at the Queen Mary University of London taught bumblebees a completely new skill.
CNET reported that Bumblebees have demonstrated a capacity to solve problems, but those tasks were all like bumblebees typical behavior. The researchers one reason behind the study is they want to point out that just because a brain is small, it does not mean it is simple.
In fact, various of recent experiments have demonstrated that insects can solve problems on what they can learn, Clint Perry said. And researchers still cannot seem to characterize the limits of insect's mental capacities.
According to The New York Times, Bumblebees have known to use a tail-shaking behavior called the waggle dance to talk each other to where they fly for flowers with nectar and signal how great the nectar is. A few researchers have even recommended that bees are capable of a minimal kind of awareness, an assertion that other may consider speculation that cannot be proved or disapproved.
In the laboratory of Lars Chittka, the bumblebees researchers have tried to test their subjects in other ways. Recently, researchers demonstrated that bees could learn to pull a string for a treat of sugar. However, in the experiment, the bees may have been learning where to go and just scrabbled around until something worked.
The researchers had tried few methods of teaching the bees in what to do. The bumblebees learned best by observing fellow bee performs the deed. After that sort of observation, 10 of 10 bees solved the issue on the first try.
That kind of imitation is called social learning, a kind of thing that is more often seen in an animal who have bigger brains, like monkeys. According to Lars Chittka, the researchers conclude that small brains of bumblebees constrain to have a limited behavioral adaptability and only basic learning capacities.
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