[nanocyber]

The decision is still made by the human evaluator(s). (Presumably, to declare one slot machine the "easiest".)

Terrible headline.

Are they even suggesting that the bar is somehow affected by the output of (perhaps) coins from the slot machine... electromagnetic interactions? Or is the slot machine example simply a thought experiment? I suspect we may be attempting to process bad input here...

[nanocyber]

I read the article again. The researchers simply seem to be saying that what seem like complex decisions can be made in simple organisms as long as the ability to increment a "counter" when a certain condition occurs is possible. The slot machine example actually requires a "counter" that can increase and decrease when opposing conditions occur. This seems very obvious...

[78666cdc]

It is obvious. We call them machines.