Inhibitory conditioning in honeybees.

Abstract

Honeybees were rewarded with sucrose solution for choosing AX(a grey target, X, labelled with a distinctive stimulus, A) rather than ABX (a grey target labelled both with A and with another distinctive stimulus, B)-AX+/ABX- training. Tests of independent groups made after such training showed a clear preference not only for AX over ABX, but also for ABX over BX, and for X over BX. These experiments, along with some earlier ones to which they bring a new perspective, provide persuasive evidence, previously lacking, of inhibitory conditioning in honeybees.