Is this sentence correct?
Hello dear native speakers

In the second second of the following paragraph :

They found that only the bees that had been conditioned with both rewards and penalties could choose the image with four shapes at a level higher than chance. When choosing between images showing four and five shapes, the bees went for four 59 per cent of time, suggesting they can understand numbers beyond four.

Is the combination "59 per cent of time" OK?

Thanks

Question

Is this sentence correct?
Hello dear native speakers

In the second second of the following paragraph :

They found that only the bees that had been conditioned with both rewards and penalties could choose the image with four shapes at a level higher than chance. When choosing between images showing four and five shapes, the bees went for four 59 per cent of time, suggesting they can understand numbers beyond four.

Is the combination "59 per cent of time" OK?

Thanks

Answer

No, it isn't right.

It should either be '59 percent of the time' ( uncountable noun, referring to a percentage of the total period of the test) or '59 percent of times' (plural noun, referring to the number of individual attempts).

It seems to be an editing slip on the New Scientist site. These things happen.

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