I think we lost the original question in the discussion.That or I've lost track of the question.
Do bees hear? We apparently have information that sound carried by air but notby vibration produces a response. Also that bees will respond differently to differentstimuli, so it isn't just noise, it is a differentiable noise.
We seem to have established that sense organ for hearing is present. While apparentlynot containing a tympanic membrane, not an "ear" but still an organ for sensingsound.
Isn't that sufficient to establish that bees hear? Do we also need to demonstratethat the different results produced by hearing different noises need to be consciousrather than reflexive responses?
From: Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 10:20 AM
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Do honey bees hear?
> Well, bees clearly can recognize the specific sound of queen piping, which
> is a fairly unique and highly consistent set of musical notes (G-sharp and A-natural).
The assumption here is that because there is a response, there is cognition. We know that there is a whole range of organismal responses that are not consciously registered. Obviously, stimulus and response continues when an organism is asleep, etc.
If I respond when I am asleep or unconscious, those responses are not mediated by consciousness, hence there is no recognition. We can observe bees' response but to prove recognition or "meaning" is a little more difficult than just watching what they do.
This is one reason why Skinner et al gave up on animal behavior as a "black box;" we can't "know." However, later researchers developed methods to study communication in animals, to try to determine the content of their minds, and differentiate between mental processes from reflexive responses.
If we do not differentiate between these because they are both neural activities, then the conversation stops there. On the other hand, if we grant that bees have mental content, we can proceed
PLB
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