Delayed symbolic matching in honeybees (Apis mellifera).

In a recent experiment on short-term memory (P. A. Couvillon, T. P. Ferreira, & M. E. Bitterman, 2003), honeybees (Apis mellifera) learned to choose between 2 colors on the basis of immediately preceding experience with 1 of them. Some learned to choose the same color as the sample (perseveration or matching), others to choose the alternative color (alternation or nonmatching). Performance in the 2 problems was very much the same. In the present experiment, honeybees learned no less readily to choose between the 2 colors on the basis of sample stimuli that were different from the colors (symbolic matching). A simple associative interpretation of the results is proposed.