Study
Bumblebees show cognitive flexibility by improving on an observed complex behavior
Loukola, Olli J.; Perry, Clint J.; Coscos, Louie; Chittka, Lars
Science, 2017
Bumblebees were trained to move a small ball to a target for a sugar reward. Naive bees then watched either a trained demonstrator bee, a magnet moving the ball, or the ball already in place, before being tested themselves.
- Studied in
- Bombus terrestris
- Sample size
- bees across trained and observer groups
Bees that watched a live demonstrator learned fastest, and many went on to use the ball nearest to them rather than copying the exact ball the demonstrator had used — solving the task more efficiently than they had seen it solved.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Bumblebees can learn a non-natural task socially and improve on the demonstrated solution, indicating behavioural flexibility rather than rote copying.
How NatureHQ reads it
Rolling a ball to a target is nothing a bumblebee does in nature, which is precisely why the result matters: it cannot be a pre-programmed routine. The improvement on the demonstration is the striking part. It concerns one bumblebee species under laboratory conditions, and "playing football" — the framing much of the coverage used — is a metaphor, not a finding.
- Laboratory task with sugar reward; no natural analogue.
- One species of bumblebee.
- Social learning here need not involve understanding the demonstrator's goal.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of SciencePublished in Science or Science Advances (AAAS).
doi.org/10.1126/science.aag2360
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.