Spontaneous relational and object similarity in wild bumblebees

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Animal Behavior
• Comparative Psychology

Background:

• Abstract relational reasoning is a key aspect of human cognition.
• While primates can learn relational similarity, they often struggle with object similarity.
• Invertebrate cognitive abilities, particularly in relational reasoning, remain largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether bumblebees can spontaneously attend to relational similarity.
• To determine if bumblebees prioritize relational similarity over object similarity when both are present.
• To explore the potential for relational reasoning in invertebrates.

Main Methods:

• Adapted a spatial matching task previously used with children and great apes for bumblebees.
• Tested bumblebees in conditions with and without competing object matches.
• Utilized wild-caught bumblebees for the study.

Main Results:

• Bumblebees spontaneously utilized relational similarity when object matches were absent.
• Bumblebees prioritized relational similarity over object similarity even when object matches were present.
• Invertebrates demonstrated an absence of object bias in this task.

Conclusions:

• Bumblebees exhibit spontaneous relational similarityAttending.
• The ability to prioritize relations over objects is not unique to humans and is present in invertebrates.
• The 'relational gap' between humans and other animals may be explained by a preference for relations over objects.