A pair of scientists from the University of Regensburg in Germany claim they ’ve conducted a study that shows ants know when they do n’t know something , and that they react consequently with doubt .
Typically , a dependency of ants work together by leaving pheromone trails to avail one another find solid food . But scientist Tomer Czaczkes and Jürgen Heinze found that when they create an unpredictable situation for psychometric test ants , they were less likely to leave such a path for their sisters to fall out .
The study involved encouraging black garden pismire to find food for thought on a deoxythymidine monophosphate - influence maze . At first , the solid food was systematically target in one arm of the tangle . When the scientist switched the placement of the food to the other limb , ants heading to the now - foodless location were less likely to bequeath a lead .
" It spend a penny sense , " says Czaczkes . " You do n’t want to give your babe wrong selective information . "
Once the emmet had successfully found the food again , they left an even stronger trail of pheromones on their way back to the dependency — presumably in the hopes that doing so would overturn the now - put on information from before . But the most striking expression of the study came when ant chose to check the newly - empty sleeve — this fourth dimension , they did n’t forget behind any pheromones at all .
" After find the new food location once , they still commonly think that the food is in the old locating — they’re just not certain , " says Czaczkes .
This ability to recognize what is definite information and what is dubious speck at a level of metacognition antecedently unobserved in insects ( exceptbees ) . Still , not everyone thinks that is what is happening .
" Ants might have other motives , such as exploring . And when exploring , they might not lie down as much pheromone , " says Ken Cheng , from Macquarie University in Sydney , Australia . Joachim Zeil of the Australian National University posits that the behaviour could be accounted for by mean of it as a statistical unusual person .
The scientist behind the study maintain that they ’re on to something . " We do n’t have a smoking gun just yet for the definite proof of metacognition in ants , but we ’ve got design to detect it , " says Czaczkes .
[ h / tNew Scientist ]
