Title |
Configural processing enables discrimination and categorization of face-like stimuli in honeybees
|
---|---|
Published in |
Journal of Experimental Biology, January 2010
|
DOI | 10.1242/jeb.039263 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
A. Avarguès-Weber, G. Portelli, J. Benard, A. Dyer, M. Giurfa |
Abstract |
We studied whether honeybees can distinguish face-like configurations by using standardized stimuli commonly employed in primate and human visual research. Furthermore, we studied whether, irrespective of their capacity to distinguish between face-like stimuli, bees learn to classify visual stimuli built up of the same elements in face-like versus non-face-like categories. We showed that bees succeeded in discriminating both face-like and non-face-like stimuli and categorized appropriately novel stimuli in these two classes. To this end, they used configural information and not just isolated features or low-level cues. Bees looked for a specific configuration in which each feature had to be located in an appropriate spatial relationship with respect to the others, thus showing sensitivity for first-order relationships between features. Although faces are biologically irrelevant stimuli for bees, the fact that they were able to integrate visual features into complex representations suggests that face-like stimulus categorization can occur even in the absence of brain regions specialized in face processing. |
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Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United Kingdom | 2 | 50% |
Unknown | 2 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 2 | 50% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 25% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 25% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
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Germany | 3 | 3% |
France | 2 | 2% |
Australia | 1 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
Argentina | 1 | <1% |
China | 1 | <1% |
Japan | 1 | <1% |
United States | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 100 | 90% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Student > Ph. D. Student | 27 | 24% |
Researcher | 24 | 22% |
Student > Master | 19 | 17% |
Professor | 6 | 5% |
Student > Bachelor | 5 | 5% |
Other | 17 | 15% |
Unknown | 13 | 12% |
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Psychology | 18 | 16% |
Neuroscience | 8 | 7% |
Environmental Science | 5 | 5% |
Computer Science | 3 | 3% |
Other | 12 | 11% |
Unknown | 13 | 12% |