LEARNING IN HONEYBEES AS A FUNCTION OF AMOUNT OF REWARD - REJECTION OF THE EQUAL-ASYMPTOTE ASSUMPTION

Foraging honeybees were trained individually with successively presented targets differing in odor, one containing 5-mu-l and the other 20-mu-l of a 50% sucrose solution, after which preferences were measured in choice tests. In Experiment 1, there were either 8 training trials with each target, 16 trials with each, or 8 trials with the 20-mu-l target and 16 trials with the 5-mu-l target. In Experiments 2 and 3, the odor-amount relation was reversed after either 24 or 16 trials with each target. In Experiment 4, differential reward was introduced only after two, four, or six feedings-to-repletion on each target. All of the results could be simulated quantitatively and with considerable accuracy on the assumption that the attractiveness of an odor is given by the strength of its association with sucrose; that asymptotic associative strength is an increasing function of amount of reward; and that choice between two odors is determined by their relative associative strength.