Transfer Along a Continuum in the Discriminative Learning of Honeybees (Apis mellifera)

In each of 2 experiments on discriminative learning in free-flying honeybees (Apis mellifera), performance in a difficult problem was found to be facilitated by prior training in an easier problem. In Experiment 1, animals that were trained to detect a strong anomaly in the ambient geomagnetic field performed better when the intensity of the anomaly was reduced than did control animals that were trained from the outset with the weaker anomaly. In Experiment 2, animals that were trained to detect a 20-^1 drop of sucrose solution and then a 10-^1 drop of the same solution performed better when the size of the drop was reduced to 5 ii\ than did control animals trained from the outset with the 5-fil drop. These results are of interest because they add transfer along a continuum to a growing list of vertebrate learning phenomena found in honeybees and because of their bearing on a developing theory of discriminative learning in honeybees.