Science Advances published a new research report, saying bees are capable of addition and subtraction (减法)in Arithmetic(算术) learning—using colors in the place of plus and minus symbols.
It isn’t unusual to see the ability to count—or at least distinguish between differing quantities in the animal kingdom—Such ability has been seen in frogs, spiders, and even fish. But solving equations (方程式) using symbols is rare, so far only achieved by famously brainy animals such as chimpanzees. The previous research says the social insects, ants, can count to four and understand the concept of zero and researchers wanted to test the limits of what their tiny brains can do.
The experiment goes like this. Scientists trained 14 bees to link the colors blue and yellow to addition and subtraction, respectively. They put the bees at the entrance of a Y-shaped maze (迷 宫), where they were shown several shapes in either yellow or blue. If the shapes were blue, bees got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one more blue shape (the other end had one less blue shape); if the shapes were yellow, they got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one less yellow shape.
The testing worked the same way: Bees that “subtracted” one shape when they saw yellow, or “added” one shape when they saw blue were considered to have aced the test. The bees got the right answer 63% to 72% of the time, depending on the type of equation and the direction of the right answer—much better than random guesses would allow.
While the results came from just 14 bees, researchers say the advance is exciting. If a brain about 20,000 times smaller than ours can perform maths using symbols, it could pave the way to novel methods in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Just don’t ask the bees to do your homework anytime soon.
【小题1】From the first two paragraphs, we know that the scientists conduct the research______.| A．to get access to machine learning |
| B．to explain the meaning of colors |
| C．to test the power of tiny brains |
| D．to teach bees to learn maths |
| A．given up | B．got through |
| C．entered for | D．checked over |
| A．Development of AI. | B．Arithmetic learning. |
| C．Protection of animals. | D．Language acquisition. |
| A．Bees “Like” Counting |
| B．Bees “Tell” Colors Apart |
| C．Bees “Perform” Maths Using Shapes |
| D．Bees “Get” Addition and Subtraction |
