Learning Studies
Bumble Bee and Honey Bee Studies
Daniel D. Wiegmann Department of Biological Sciences J. P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 Email ddwiegm@bgnet.bgsu.edu Phone 419.372.2691 FAX 419.372.2024 Restrained honey bees (right) readily learn to associate rewards and odors and, if an odor is paired with a sucrose reward, a learned association is evidenced by proboscis in response to the odor alone. Recent studies by members of our laboratory indicate that the control of a reward—its impact on the rate of learning or the expression of learned associations—depends on its value relative to previously acquired rewards. (Photographs (right and at top) courtesy of Brian H. Smith.) M. E. Bitterman observed an analogous phenomenon in honey bees about thirty years ago, but at the time he concluded that the response was due to sensory adaptation. Later, Patricia A. Couvillon and he confirmed that the disruption of consummatory behavior by honey bees after a reward reduction is indeed analogous to the response observed in vertebrates. In our laboratory we examine how shifts of reward influence the choice behavior of free-flying bumble bees (right) trained to artificial flowers. We also recently initiated studies of reward expectation in restrained honey bees, a collaborative project between members of our laboratory and Brian H. Smith (Arizona State University). Click on the image (left) to link to Brian H. Smith. In our laboratory we study how the memory of rewards and actual shifts of reward influence honey bee and bumble bee behavior. Studies of vertebrates have revealed that animals form expectations of reward that, when unrealized, result in the disruption of consummatory behavior, what psychologists call frustration. Individuals also learn the broader background context in which they are rewarded. Our work on free-flying bumble bees and studies of free-flying honey bees by other researchers suggest that, in addition to flower-specific reward expectations, bees form patch-level expectations. Restrained honey bees also learn the color of background illumination (left) in which they are rewarded. Recent studies with restrained honey bees by members of our laboratory indicate, however, that the magnitude of a reward is only loosely tied, or perhaps not tied at all, to a particular context: a reward received in one context establishes an expectation that carries over to other contexts. In our future work with Brian Smith we plan to study the neurological basis of reward expectations and their control over behavior. Click on the image (left) to return to the home page. (Photograph courtesy of J. R. Baylis.)