Comparative analysis of learning in honeybees

Bitterman, M. E.

doi:10.3758/bf03198961

Cited by 112 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 105 publications

(105 reference statements)

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“…However, both effects have been reported in honeybees within other paradigms. Overshadowing in honeybees has been extensively investigated by Couvillon, Bitterman, and colleagues (e.g., Couvillon & Bitterman, 1989;Couvillon, Klosterhalfen, & Bitterman, 1983;Couvillon,Mateo, & Bitterman, 1996; for a review, see Bitterman, 1996). Blocking effects in honeybees have been investigated within two paradigms: conditioned proboscis extension and foraging for sugar water.…”

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confidence: 99%

Blocking in landmark-based search in honeybees

Chen

2001

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Two experiments tested blocking in landmark-based search in honeybees. Honeybees in the experimental group were trained in Phase 1 with a single landmark in a constant spatial relation to the target (sugar water). In the compound training second phase, the landmark used in Phase 1 (blocking landmark) and a new landmark (blocked landmark) were presented at constant spatial relations to the target. The blocking and blocked landmarks differed from each other in color and position, and the blocking landmark retained the same spatial relationship to the target as in Phase 1. In Experiment 1, the control group experienced only Phase 2 training with two landmarks. In Experiment 2, the control group was trained with a different landmark in a different position in Phase 1. Blocking was found in both cases.

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confidence: 99%

Blocking in landmark-based search in honeybees

Chen

2001

Animal Learning & Behavior

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“…The honeybee is a useful model not only because of its fast learning and prolonged memory capabilities but also because it offers an excellent opportunity to study the physiological basis of such capabilities (Menzel 1985;Menzel et al 1993;Menzel and Müller 1996;Menzel and Giurfa 2001). Olfactory conditioning in the honeybee has been extensively studied to this end (Bitterman et al 1983;Smith 1991;Smith and Cobey 1994;Hammer and Menzel 1995;Bitterman 1996;Menzel and Müller 1996;Hammer 1997). In this paradigm, harnessed honeybees are conditioned to olfactory stimuli associated with a reinforcement of sucrose solution (Takeda 1961;Bitterman et al 1983).…”

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“…They behave as if they have mastered the abstract concept of alternation or of regular sequence. Bitterman (1975) has argued that the speed with which animals of a given species improve on reversals of this kind seems to be related to differences in "intelligence".…”

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Successive Olfactory Reversal Learning in Honeybees

Komischke

Giurfa²,

Lachnit³

et al. 2002

Learn. Mem.

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Honeybees Apis mellifera can associate an originally neutral odor with a reinforcement of sucrose solution. Forward pairings of odor and reinforcement enable the odor to release the proboscis extension reflex in consecutive tests. Bees can also be conditioned differentially: They learn to respond to a reinforced odor and not to a nonreinforced one. They can also learn to reverse their choice. Here we ask whether honeybees can learn successive olfactory differential conditioning tasks involving different overlapping pairs of odors. The conditioning schedules were established in order to train the animals with 3, 2, 1, or 0 reversals previous to a last differential conditioning phase in which two additional reversals were present. We studied whether or not successive reversal learning is possible and whether or not learning olfactory discrimination reversals affects the solving of subsequent discrimination reversals. Therefore we compared the responses of bees that had experienced reversals with those of bees that had not experienced such reversals when both are confronted with a new reversal situation. In experiment 1 we showed that bees that had experienced three previous reversals were better in solving the final reversal task than bees with no previous reversal experience. In experiment 2, we showed that one reversal learning is enough for bees to perform better in the final reversal task. The successive different reversals trained in our experiments resemble the natural foraging situation in which a honeybee forager has to switch successively from an initial floral species to different ones. The fact that experiencing such changes seems to improve a bee's performance in dealing with further new exploited food sources has therefore an adaptive impact for the individual and for the colony as a whole.

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“…That bees are well designed to exploit floral resources is so self-evident that at first glance it may seem as if there is nothing to explain. Indeed, much of the research on foraging behaviour concerns what bees do, and how they do it, after they have had their first rewarded experience on flowers (see reviews by Gould, 1990;Bitterman, 1996;Chittka and Thomson, 2001;Menzel, 2001;Raine et al, 2006;Benard et al, 2006;Giurfa, 2007;Dukas, 2008;Goulson, 2010;Avarguès-Weber et al, 2011;Dyer, 2012). There is comparatively less research on what they do before: when workers leave their colony for the first time, having never yet encountered a flower, how do they identify candidate food sources?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting to the start line: how bumblebees and honeybees are visually guided towards their first floral contact

Orbán

Plowright

2014

Insect. Soc.

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Much of the literature on foraging behaviour in bees focuses on what they learn after they have had rewarded experience with flowers. This review focuses on how honeybees and bumblebees are drawn to candidate food sources in the first place: the foundation on which learning is built. Prior to rewarded foraging experience, flower-naïve bumblebees and honeybees rely heavily on visual cues to discover their first flower. This review lists methodological issues that surround the study of flowernaïve behaviour and describes technological advances. The role of distinct visual properties of flowers in attracting bees is considered: colour, floral size, patterning and social cues. The research reviewed is multi-disciplinary and takes the perspectives of both the bees and the plants they visit. Several avenues for future research are proposed.

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Comparative analysis of learning in honeybees

Cited by 112 publications

References 105 publications

Blocking in landmark-based search in honeybees

Blocking in landmark-based search in honeybees

Successive Olfactory Reversal Learning in Honeybees

Getting to the start line: how bumblebees and honeybees are visually guided towards their first floral contact

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