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Categorization of visual stimuli in the honeybee Apis mellifera

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Abstract

Categorization refers to the classification of perceptual input into defined functional groups. We present and discuss evidence suggesting that stimulus categorization can also be found in an invertebrate, the honeybee Apis mellifera, thus underlining the generality across species of this cognitive process. Honeybees show positive transfer of appropriate responding from a trained to a novel set of visual stimuli. Such a transfer was demonstrated for specific isolated features such as symmetry or orientation, but also for assemblies (layouts) of features. Although transfer from training to novel stimuli can be achieved by stimulus generalization of the training stimuli, most of these transfer tests involved clearly distinguishable stimuli for which generalization would be reduced. Though in most cases specific experimental controls such as stimulus balance and discriminability are still required, it seems appropriate to characterize the performance of honeybees as reflecting categorization. Further experiments should address the issue of which categorization theory accounts better for the visual performances of honeybees.

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Acknowledgments

We thank four anonymous referees and G. Beugnon and M. Gauthier for their constructive and helpful comments on our manuscript. J. Benard thanks the University Paul-Sabatier (ATUPS fellowships 2005 & 2006), the Foundation Naturalia & Biologia and the French Research Ministry for financial support. M. Giurfa was supported by the French Research Council (CNRS), the University Paul-Sabatier and the Institut Universitaire de France. Thanks are also due to W. Farina and his team at the University of Buenos Aires for supporting our experimental work.

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  1. Silke Stach

    Present address: Länderinstitut für Bienenkunde Hohen Neuendorf e.V., Friedrich-Engels-Str. 32, 16540, Hohen Neuendorf, Germany

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  1. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (UMR 5169), CNRS – Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse cedex 4, France

    Julie Benard, Silke Stach & Martin Giurfa

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Correspondence to Martin Giurfa.

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This contribution is part of the special issue “Animal Logics” (Watanabe and Huber 2006).

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Benard, J., Stach, S. & Giurfa, M. Categorization of visual stimuli in the honeybee Apis mellifera . Anim Cogn 9, 257–270 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-006-0032-9

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