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Honey Bee Swarm Cognition: Decision-Making Performance and Adaptation

Honey Bee Swarm Cognition: Decision-Making Performance and Adaptation

Kevin M. Passino
Copyright: © 2010 |Volume: 1 |Issue: 2 |Pages: 18
ISSN: 1947-9263|EISSN: 1947-9271|EISBN13: 9781609603687|DOI: 10.4018/jsir.2010040105
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MLA

Passino, Kevin M. "Honey Bee Swarm Cognition: Decision-Making Performance and Adaptation." IJSIR vol.1, no.2 2010: pp.80-97. http://doi.org/10.4018/jsir.2010040105

APA

Passino, K. M. (2010). Honey Bee Swarm Cognition: Decision-Making Performance and Adaptation. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research (IJSIR), 1(2), 80-97. http://doi.org/10.4018/jsir.2010040105

Chicago

Passino, Kevin M. "Honey Bee Swarm Cognition: Decision-Making Performance and Adaptation," International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research (IJSIR) 1, no.2: 80-97. http://doi.org/10.4018/jsir.2010040105

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Abstract

A synthesis of findings from neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral biology has been recently used to show that several key features of cognition in neuron-based brains of vertebrates are also present in bee-based swarms of honey bees. Here, simulation tests are administered to the honey bee swarm cognition system to study its decision-making performance. First, tests are used to evaluate the ability of the swarm to discriminate between choice options and avoid picking inferior “distractor” options. Second, a “Treisman feature search test” from psychology, and tests of irrationality developed for humans, are administered to show that the swarm possesses some features of human decision-making performance. Evolutionary adaptation of swarm decision making is studied by administering swarm choice tests when there are variations on the parameters of the swarm’s decision-making mechanisms. The key result is that in addition to trading off decision-making speed and accuracy, natural selection seems to have settled on parameters that result in individual bee-level assessment noise being effectively filtered out to not adversely affect swarm-level decision-making performance.

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