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In experiments, bees can learn to recognise individual human faces by treating them as patterns of features.

Animal cognition

Science

The story behind the card

Bees do not process faces the way people do. In a 2005 study, Adrian Dyer and colleagues trained honeybees with sugar-water rewards to pick out photographs of particular human faces. In later tests with no reward, the bees still chose the right face over a similar one more than 80% of the time, although nothing in their evolution involves human faces. Follow-up work suggests they learn how features sit in relation to one another, such as the eyes above the mouth, rather than memorising a single detail. That is remarkable visual learning for a brain about the size of a sesame seed.

Türkçe oku
Arılar, deneylerde tek tek insan yüzlerini tanımayı öğrenebiliyor. Yüzü, gözlerin, burnun ve ağzın birbirine göre yerleşiminden oluşan bir desen gibi öğreniyorlar.

Arılar yüzleri insanlar gibi algılamaz. 2005'te Adrian Dyer ve arkadaşları, bal arılarını şekerli su ödülüyle belirli insan yüzlerinin fotoğraflarını seçmeye alıştırdı. Daha sonra ödül verilmeden yapılan testlerde arılar, evrimlerinde insan yüzüyle hiçbir ilişki olmamasına karşın, doğru yüzü benzer bir yüzden yüzde 80'i aşan oranda ayırt etti. Sonraki çalışmalara göre arılar tek bir ayrıntıyı ezberlemiyor; gözlerin ağzın üstünde durması gibi, yüzdeki parçaların birbirine göre yerini öğreniyor. Susam tanesi büyüklüğünde bir beyin için şaşırtıcı bir görsel öğrenme bu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Bee learning and communication
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