Summary
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Interruptions of sucking while the bee is sitting on the disc with the learning colour lead to low susceptibility to impairment after external treatments (ECS, CO2- or N2-narcosis and cooling). Repeated short rewards with landing on the learning colour qualitatively give the same result. Only part of the information stored is susceptible to impairment in these experiments.
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With electroconvulsive shocks (ECS), CO2-narcosis and cooling the frequency of correct choices after a single reward can be set to stable values. The frequency of correct choices after more rewards depends on this initially set choice reaction.
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A linear learning model can be used to describe the dependence of the choice reactions before and after a reward. A relative measure of the input information to the learning system can be gained from this model. This measure is called “relative learning step”.
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The calculation of the “relative learning steps” for the experiments with different rewards shows that the transfer rate of information from short to long-term memory in the bee is constant for different reward situations.
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The subjective input to the learning system increases linearly with the number of sucking interruptions.
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The dynamics of learning in the honey bee can be described in a model with three different types of storages: Two short-term storages, which are characterized by the susceptibility to impairment and the consolidation function and a long-term storage. Depending on the reward situation the signal progression can be serial and parallel.
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I thank Prof. Menzel and his research group for their support and many stimulating discussions.
Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Az. 741,29).
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Erber, J. The dynamics of learning in the honey bee (Apis mellifica carnica). J. Comp. Physiol. 99, 243–255 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00613838
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00613838