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Abstract
Social learning occurs when one individual learns from another, mainly conspecific, often by observation, imitation, or communication. Using artificial flowers, we studied social learning by allowing test bumblebees to (a) see dead bumblebees arranged in foraging positions or (b) watch live bumblebees actually foraging or (c) communicate with nestmates within their colony without having seen foraging. Artificial flowers made from 1.5 mL microcentrifuge tubes with closed caps were inserted through the centres of blue 7 cm plastic discs as optical signals through which the bees could not forage. The reinforcer reward syrup was accessible only through holes in the sides of the tubes beneath the blue discs. Two colonies (A and B) were used in tandem along with control (C and D) colonies. No bee that was not exposed (i.e., from the control colonies (C and D)) to social learning discovered the access holes. Inside colony B, we imprisoned a group of bees that were prevented from seeing or watching. Bees that saw dead bumblebees in foraging positions, those that watched nest-mates foraging, and those that had only in-hive communication with successful foragers all foraged successfully. The means of in-hive communication are not understood and warrant intense investigation.
Highlights
Social learning is defined by ethologists as any learning from conspecifics [1] and mostly involves observation, imitation by observing and replicating another’s behavior, and modeling to transmit the learned behaviour from one individual to others [2]
Bees from the control colonies (C and D) in cages III and IV had no opportunity for social learning, and all subject bees, 15 bees from colony C and 10 bees from colony D, which were observed proved incapable of foraging successfully at the artificial flowers, with 30 minutes of giving-up time
Our results indicate that workers of B. impatiens are highly observant and learn through social communication
Summary
Social learning is defined by ethologists as any learning from conspecifics [1] (but we note that social learning between species is known) and mostly involves observation, imitation by observing and replicating another’s behavior, and modeling to transmit the learned behaviour from one individual to others [2]. Research on social learning has focused largely on vertebrates [7, 8]. A growing number of researchers have shown recently that bees and other small brained animals can learn through acquisition of information by social transmission [9,10,11,12]. Especially eusocial bees, show remarkably complex learning abilities [11, 13,14,15], and social information often leads to the relatively long-term changes in behaviours that constitute social learning. As Giurfa’s short but informative review notes simple mechanisms based on elemental associations, either Pavlovian or operant conditions may account for social learning in animals with miniature brains, so social learning should not be considered surprising or a highly cognitive ability [11]
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