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Ant colonies outperform individuals when a sensory discrimination task is difficult but not when it is easy

Overview of attention for article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, July 2013
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (82nd percentile)

Citations

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253 Mendeley
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Title
Ant colonies outperform individuals when a sensory discrimination task is difficult but not when it is easy
Published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, July 2013
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1304917110
Pubmed ID
Authors

Takao Sasaki, Boris Granovskiy, Richard P. Mann, David J. T. Sumpter, Stephen C. Pratt

Abstract

"Collective intelligence" and "wisdom of crowds" refer to situations in which groups achieve more accurate perception and better decisions than solitary agents. Whether groups outperform individuals should depend on the kind of task and its difficulty, but the nature of this relationship remains unknown. Here we show that colonies of Temnothorax ants outperform individuals for a difficult perception task but that individuals do better than groups when the task is easy. Subjects were required to choose the better of two nest sites as the quality difference was varied. For small differences, colonies were more likely than isolated ants to choose the better site, but this relationship was reversed for large differences. We explain these results using a mathematical model, which shows that positive feedback between group members effectively integrates information and sharpens the discrimination of fine differences. When the task is easier the same positive feedback can lock the colony into a suboptimal choice. These results suggest the conditions under which crowds do or do not become wise.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 39 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 253 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 6 2%
Portugal 2 <1%
France 2 <1%
Germany 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 238 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 61 24%
Student > Bachelor 42 17%
Researcher 38 15%
Student > Master 22 9%
Professor > Associate Professor 19 8%
Other 48 19%
Unknown 23 9%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 115 45%
Psychology 21 8%
Physics and Astronomy 16 6%
Computer Science 12 5%
Neuroscience 12 5%
Other 45 18%
Unknown 32 13%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 59. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 December 2022.
All research outputs
#700,682
of 24,932,434 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#11,789
of 102,006 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,416
of 204,235 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#157
of 902 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,932,434 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 102,006 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.9. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 204,235 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 902 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.