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Study

Numerical cognition in honeybees enables addition and subtraction

Howard, Scarlett R.; Avarguès-Weber, Aurore; Garcia, Jair E.; Greentree, Andrew D.; Dyer, Adrian G.

Science Advances, 2019

Peer-reviewedcontrolled laboratory experimentlaboratory

What they did

Bees entered a Y-maze showing a set of shapes in one of two colours. Blue meant "choose the option with one more"; yellow meant "choose the option with one fewer". Correct choices were rewarded across many trials.

Studied in
Apis mellifera
Sample size
14 individually trained free-flying honey bees

What they found

After extensive training, bees chose correctly above chance on both operations, including on some novel quantities.

What it means

The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.

How the authors put it

Honey bees can learn to perform elementary addition and subtraction using a colour cue as the operator.

How NatureHQ reads it

This is the study behind "bees can do maths" headlines, and it is the one in this dataset that most deserves caution. The training was long, the sample small, and performance above chance rather than accurate; several researchers have argued the results are better explained by simpler visual strategies than by arithmetic. NatureHQ treats it as a genuine, interesting finding that has not been settled — not as an established fact.

Limitations

  • Fourteen bees, after around one hundred training trials each.
  • Above-chance performance is well short of reliable calculation.
  • Published critiques argue that low-level cues or simpler rules could produce the same result.
  • Independent replication has been limited.

What happened afterwards

  • contested reanalysis

    Several researchers published critiques arguing that the training procedure and stimulus design leave simpler explanations open, and that the statistical case for arithmetic is weaker than presented.

What this study is used for on NatureHQ

One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.

Finding the paper

Published by: American Association for the Advancement of SciencePublished in Science or Science Advances (AAAS).

doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav0961

This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.

NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.