Myrmica sabuleti Workers Cannot Acquire Serial Recognition if not Rewarded

Abstract

Having previously found that workers of the ant Myrmica sabuleti can acquire serial recognition when rewarded after having walked a correct visual sequence, we here examined if they can acquire this type of learning (that is recognizing a correct sequence presented together with wrong ones) without being rewarded. Using the same colonies two months later and sequences made of four never previously presented elements, we observed that these ants could not significantly acquire serial recognition. Thereafter, rewarding the ants at each step (element) of the sequence, they could progressively acquire some serial recognition, reaching a score of 60% after seven training days. This score no longer increased the day after, being thus the maximum score the ants could reach. The ant M. sabuleti can thus acquire serial recognition only if duly rewarded during training. Moreover, on the basis of their responses to three wrong sequences during testing, it might be presumed that, when being rewarded at each element of the sequence and not at the end of it, the ants better memorize the first element of the sequence. These studies have demonstrated that ants, particularly the workers of M. sabuleti, can acquire serial recognition only through operant conditioning.

Ants Are at the First Stage of the Notion of Zero

“…The present study of ants being at the first stage of a comprehension of the zero concept is an extension of our previous research the aim of which was to define the subtle limit of the ants' cognitive abilities. We have already shown that ants, at least M. sabuleti, can solve some problems, correctly react in new situations, cannot use sensu stricto tools, can acquire serial recognition but only if rewarded, and can subsequently exhibit behavior acquired through conditioning (Cammaerts, 2017a(Cammaerts, , 2017b(Cammaerts, , 2018Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2018a, 2018b, 2018c. Based on this study, we can add that M. sabuleti can acquire through experiences some basic, concrete, notion of the absence, non existence, or null presence of an element, which is the initial step to a notion of zero.…”