Negative patterning discrimination is considered a nonelemental form of learning, and has been extensively investigated across taxa. Several insect species have also been examined with this task, but only honey bees, Apis mellifera, have so far demonstrated this capacity. Recent empirical and theoretical studies suggest that negative patterning can be accounted for by the emergent property of the mushroom body circuitry in the honey bee brain. Given the neurobiological similarity between bumble bees and honey bees, we hypothesized that bumble bees should also have this cognitive capacity. Here we showed that free-flying bumble bees, Bombus terrestris, learned chromatic, achromatic and visual-olfactory bimodal negative patterning discrimination. Further analyses showed that individual bumble bees adopted distinct strategies in approaching negative patterning discrimination, some solving the task in a configural manner, while others solved it via a simpler strategy. Our findings are in contrast to previous work using harnessed bumble bees and highlight the importance of designing experiments around the requirements of specific species. Our results add to our knowledge on insect nonelemental learning and open up new opportunities for examining cognitive limitations and individual decision-making strategies.

中文翻译：

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自由飞行的大黄蜂的彩色、消色差和双峰负模式辨别

负模式歧视被认为是一种非基本的学习形式，并已在整个分类群中进行了广泛的调查。还通过这项任务检查了几种昆虫物种，但迄今为止只有蜜蜂，Apis mellifera，已经证明了这种能力。最近的经验和理论研究表明，蜜蜂大脑中蘑菇体电路的突现特性可以解释负面模式。鉴于大黄蜂和蜜蜂之间的神经生物学相似性，我们假设大黄蜂也应该具有这种认知能力。在这里，我们展示了自由飞行的大黄蜂，Bombus terrestris，学会了彩色、消色差和视觉嗅觉双峰负模式歧视。进一步的分析表明，个别大黄蜂在处理负面模式歧视时采用了不同的策略，一些以配置方式解决任务，而另一些则通过更简单的策略解决。我们的发现与之前使用驯养大黄蜂的工作形成对比，并强调了围绕特定物种的要求设计实验的重要性。我们的结果增加了我们对昆虫非基本学习的了解，并为检查认知局限性和个人决策策略开辟了新的机会。我们的发现与之前使用驯养大黄蜂的工作形成对比，并强调了围绕特定物种的要求设计实验的重要性。我们的结果增加了我们对昆虫非基本学习的了解，并为检查认知局限性和个人决策策略开辟了新的机会。我们的发现与之前使用驯养大黄蜂的工作形成对比，并强调了围绕特定物种的要求设计实验的重要性。我们的结果增加了我们对昆虫非基本学习的了解，并为检查认知局限性和个人决策策略开辟了新的机会。