The dynamics of learning in the honey bee (Apis mellifica carnica)

Summary

• 1) Interruptions of sucking while the bee is sitting on the disc with the learning colour lead to low susceptibility to impairment after external treatments (ECS, CO₂- or N₂-narcosis and cooling). Repeated short rewards with landing on the learning colour qualitatively give the same result. Only part of the information stored is susceptible to impairment in these experiments.

• 2) With electroconvulsive shocks (ECS), CO₂-narcosis and cooling the frequency of correct choices after a single reward can be set to stable values. The frequency of correct choices after more rewards depends on this initially set choice reaction.

• 3) A linear learning model can be used to describe the dependence of the choice reactions before and after a reward. A relative measure of the input information to the learning system can be gained from this model. This measure is called “relative learning step”.

• 4) The calculation of the “relative learning steps” for the experiments with different rewards shows that the transfer rate of information from short to long-term memory in the bee is constant for different reward situations.

• 5) The subjective input to the learning system increases linearly with the number of sucking interruptions.

• 6) The dynamics of learning in the honey bee can be described in a model with three different types of storages: Two short-term storages, which are characterized by the susceptibility to impairment and the consolidation function and a long-term storage. Depending on the reward situation the signal progression can be serial and parallel.