Insects can be very good learners. For example, they can form associations between a cue and a reward after only one exposure. Discrimination learning, in which multiple cues are associated with different outcomes, is critical for responding correctly complex environments. However, the extent of such discrimination learning is not well explored. Studies concerning discrimination learning within one valence are also rare. Here we ask whether Lasius niger ants can form multiple concurrent associations to different reward levels, and how rapidly such associations can be learned. We allowed individual workers to sequentially feed on up to four different food qualities, each associated with a different odour cue. Using pairwise preference tests, we found that ants can successfully learn at least two, and likely three, odour/quality associations, requiring as little as one exposure to each combination in order for learning to take place. By testing preference between two non-extreme values (i.e. between 0.4 M and 0.8 M having been trained to the qualities 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6) we exclude the possibility that ants are only memorising the best and worst values in a set. Such rapid learning of multiple associations, within one valence and one modality, is impressive, and makes Lasius niger a very tractable model for complex training paradigms.

中文翻译：

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蚂蚁 Lasius niger 中非常快速的多气味辨别学习

昆虫可以是很好的学习者。例如，他们可以在一次曝光后形成提示和奖励之间的关联。辨别学习，其中多个线索与不同的结果相关联，对于正确响应复杂环境至关重要。然而，这种歧视学习的程度还没有得到很好的探索。关于一种价内的歧视学习的研究也很少见。在这里，我们询问 Lasius niger 蚂蚁是否可以形成多个并发关联以达到不同的奖励水平，以及这种关联的学习速度有多快。我们允许单个工人依次喂食多达四种不同的食物品质，每一种都与不同的气味线索相关。使用成对偏好测试​​，我们发现蚂蚁可以成功地学习至少两种，可能是三种气味/质量关联，只需要对每种组合进行一次接触即可进行学习。通过测试两个非极端值之间的偏好（即在 0.4 M 和 0.8 M 之间已经被训练到 0.2、0.4、0.8 和 1.6 的质量），我们排除了蚂蚁只记住集合中最好和最差值的可能性。在一种价态和一种模态内对多种关联的这种快速学习令人印象深刻，并使 Lasius niger 成为复杂训练范式的一个非常易于处理的模型。