Intermodal blocking in honeybees.

Abstract

Foraging honeybees were trained in a concurrent blocking design with a compound stimulus (AX) reinforced and one of its components (A) either reinforced for a blocking group or nonreinforced for a control group. In Experiment 1, a compound of two colors was used; in Experiment 2, a compound of two odors was used; in Experiment 3, a color-position compound, with position defined in terms of proximity to a distinctive visual landmark, was used; and, in Experiment 4, an odor-position compound was used. In each of the first three experiments, the blocking group responded less than did the control group in a subsequent test with X; in the fourth experiment, the two groups did not differ. The results are in accord with expectations based on those of previous experiments with honeybees in which the independence assumption was found to hold for intermodal compounds but not for intramodal compounds.