Honeybees (Apis mellifera) holding on to memories: response competition causes retroactive interference effects.
Five experiments on honeybees examined how the learning of a second task interferes with what was previously learned. Free flying bees were tested for landmark-based memory in variations on a paradigm of retroactive interference. Bees first learned Task 1, were tested on Task 1 (Test 1), then learned Task 2, and were tested again on Task 1 (Test 2). A 60-min delay (waiting in a box) before Test 2 caused no performance decrements. If the two tasks had conflicting response requirements, (e.g., target right of a green landmark in Task 1 and left of a blue landmark in Task 2), then a strong decrement on Test 2 was found (retroactive interference effect). When response competition was minimised during training or testing, however, the decrement on Test 2 was small or nonexistent. The results implicate response competition as a major contributor to the retroactive interference effect. The honeybee seems to hold on to memories; new memories do not wipe out old ones.
Cheng
Ken
K
Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour and Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. ken@galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au
Wignall
Anne E
AE
D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*