Similarities and dissimilarities between automatic learning in bees and humans

This study provides the first systematic comparison of automatic visual learning in humans and honeybees, showing that while both species extract statistical information about co-occurrence contingencies of visual scenes, in contrast to humans, bees do not automatically encode predictability information in those scenes. Since access to predictability has long been considered as key for acquiring complex knowledge effectively, this difference might provide hints about what leads to human's versatile learning and superior cognitive abilities.
Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news