Local enhancement or stimulus enhancement? Bumblebee social learning results in a specific pattern of flower preference

Avarguès‐Weber, Aurore; Chittka, Lars

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.09.020

Cited by 37 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…If observational learning for new flower preferences is the consequence of a second-order conditioning, then impeding or modifying the first association should alter flower preference. In bumblebees, this hypothesis is supported by the fact that naive bees with no previous social foraging experience tend to ignore the choices of conspecifics in their foraging decision (Dawson et al, 2013;Avarguès-Weber and Chittka, 2014a), suggesting that there is a decisive role of prior associations between social cues and a reward. Additionally, the preference for socially demonstrated flowers can be reversed into avoidance if the tested bees are allowed to form an association between the conspecifics and a bitter aversive solution beforehand (Dawson et al, 2013).…”

Section: An Associative Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information transfer beyond the waggle dance: observational learning in bees and flies

et al. 2015

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Social information transfer is part of the success of animal societies and has been documented in a variety of taxa, from slime molds to humans. In invertebrates, the historical research focus has been on the specialized signals shaped by selection to convey information, such as the honeybee waggle dance. However, growing evidence shows that invertebrates also commonly glean critical information about their environment by observing others. For instance, a bumblebee's choice between novel flower species is influenced by the observation of the foraging choices of more experienced conspecifics. Recent studies suggest that these seemingly complex learning abilities can be explained in terms of simple associative learning, whereby individuals learn to associate social cues (conditioned stimuli) to reward cues (unconditioned stimuli). Here, we review the behavioral evidence of observational learning both in bees and Drosophila. We discuss the validity of associative accounts of observational learning and the potential neural circuits mediating visual social learning in these model species to define future research avenues for studying the neurobiology of social cognition in miniature brains.

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Section: An Associative Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information transfer beyond the waggle dance: observational learning in bees and flies

et al. 2015

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“…It has been hypothesised that social learning is second-order conditioning whereby bees associate conspecific presence with reward and then associate conspecifics with a rewarding flower colour [104]. However, bumblebees learn differently when trained with social versus inanimate cues [105], and rely on social, over asocial, learning when tasks are complex [35] or the environment variable [106]. These experiments and 'ghost controls' in several other species [107] indicate animals respond differently to social and asocial information, again implying that enhancements in social learning performance can evolve.…”

Section: Box 1: Mechanisms Of Asocial and Social Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Learning Strategies: Bridge-Building between Fields

Kendal

Boogert

Rendell

et al. 2018

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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While social learning is widespread, indiscriminate copying of others is rarely beneficial. Theory suggests that individuals should be selective in what, when, and whom they copy, by following 'social learning strategies' (SLSs). The SLS concept has stimulated extensive experimental work, integrated theory, and empirical findings, and created impetus to the social learning and cultural evolution fields. However, the SLS concept needs updating to accommodate recent findings that individuals switch between strategies flexibly, that multiple strategies are deployed simultaneously, and that there is no one-to-one correspondence between psychological heuristics deployed and resulting population-level patterns. The field would also benefit from the simultaneous study of mechanism and function. SLSs provide a useful vehicle for bridge-building between cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology.

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“…Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) can acquire flower colour preferences after joining conspecifics and subsequently finding food on novel flowers of a given colour (Dawson 2013;Avarguès-Weber & Chittka 2014). Through foraging near others, animals may come to form associations between the presence of others and the distribution of resources.…”

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confidence: 99%