Learning in honeybees (Apis mellifera) as a function of amount of reward: Acquisition measures.

Abstract

Foraging honeybees (Apis mellifera) were trained individually to discriminate between targets that contained 5-/il or 20- 1 drops of sucrose solution. Neither latency of response on singlestimulus trials nor preference on choice trials proved sufficiently sensitive to provide a detailed picture of the course of learning as a function of amount of reward, but measures of resistance to extinction supported the assumption that the slope of the acquisition function increases with amount of reward while its asymptote remains the same. Like rats in a double runway, the honeybees tended to respond less rapidly after large than after small reward, which does not require an associative interpretation. Other results showed that 5and 20-/il drops of sucrose are differentially reinforcing in consequence of their ingestive properties rather than their visual appearance.