I am about to write a short article for New Scientist
reporting on some work done at the University of Sao
Paulo in the lab of Dora Ventura.  A grad student of
hers proved, with a behavioral experiment, that bees
can "see" optical illusions.  The bees were trained on
sugar-baited triangles, and then presented with the
"Kanisza triangle," a famous illusion invented in 1955,
which has the three corners of a triangle, and which
humans automatically "see" a triangle in--though none
of the three sides is "there."  The bees immediately
went to these non-existent sides looking for the sugar
water.  The original report in Ciencia Hoje says that
most tests of such perception have been in humans, and
the few in insects have been electrophysiological, not
behavioral.  Are any of you familiar with any such
work, or is this person right about that?
 
Jonathan
|-----------------------------|------------------------------|
|-Jonathan D. Beard-----------|--Internet [log in to unmask]
|-Science Writer and----------|--CompuServe 72301,563--------|
|-Photo Researcher------------|--Voice tel-212-749-1055------|
|-820 West End Avenue 3B------|--Fax 212-749-9336 or 662-3426|
|-New York City 10025-5328----|--alternate [log in to unmask]
|-----------------------------|------------------------------|