Like Humans, the Paper Wasp Has a Special Talent for Learning Faces

Like Humans, the Paper Wasp Has a Special Talent for Learning Faces

Reference- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201142756.htm

Summary- “Wasps and humans have independently evolved similar and very specialized face-learning mechanisms, despite the fact that everything about the way we see and the way our brains are structured is different”. The study marks the first time that any insect has demonstrated such a high level of specialized visual learning. In earlier research they found that paper wasps recognize individuals of their species by variations in their facial markings and that they behave more aggressively toward wasps with unfamiliar faces. Twelve wasps were trained for 40 consecutive trials on each image type. So they paired images included photos of normal paper wasp faces, photos of caterpillars, simple geometric patterns, and computer-altered wasp faces.

Critique- I think it is amazing how the paper wasps show different expressions and aggressions. These paper wasps have different faces depending on what is happening.

Impact- The wasps learned different faces for certain things. When the researchers showed the wasps, photos of caterpillars, simple geometric patterns, and computer-altered wasp faces. A reward was consistently associated with one image in a pair.