No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.

Potential trade-offs between learning speed and memory-related performance could be important factors in the evolution of learning. Here, we test whether rapid learning interferes with the acquisition of new information using a reversal learning paradigm. Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) were trained...

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Autores principales:	Nigel E Raine, Lars Chittka
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7341adbc89f04151b8c116bd7370d674
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7341adbc89f04151b8c116bd7370d6742021-11-18T07:04:48ZNo trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0045096https://doaj.org/article/7341adbc89f04151b8c116bd7370d6742012-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23028779/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Potential trade-offs between learning speed and memory-related performance could be important factors in the evolution of learning. Here, we test whether rapid learning interferes with the acquisition of new information using a reversal learning paradigm. Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) were trained to associate yellow with a floral reward. Subsequently the association between colour and reward was reversed, meaning bees then had to learn to visit blue flowers. We demonstrate that individuals that were fast to learn yellow as a predictor of reward were also quick to reverse this association. Furthermore, overnight memory retention tests suggest that faster learning individuals are also better at retaining previously learned information. There is also an effect of relatedness: colonies whose workers were fast to learn the association between yellow and reward also reversed this association rapidly. These results are inconsistent with a trade-off between learning speed and the reversal of a previously made association. On the contrary, they suggest that differences in learning performance and cognitive (behavioural) flexibility could reflect more general differences in colony learning ability. Hence, this study provides additional evidence to support the idea that rapid learning and behavioural flexibility have adaptive value.Nigel E RaineLars ChittkaPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 9, p e45096 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Nigel E Raine Lars Chittka No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.
description	Potential trade-offs between learning speed and memory-related performance could be important factors in the evolution of learning. Here, we test whether rapid learning interferes with the acquisition of new information using a reversal learning paradigm. Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) were trained to associate yellow with a floral reward. Subsequently the association between colour and reward was reversed, meaning bees then had to learn to visit blue flowers. We demonstrate that individuals that were fast to learn yellow as a predictor of reward were also quick to reverse this association. Furthermore, overnight memory retention tests suggest that faster learning individuals are also better at retaining previously learned information. There is also an effect of relatedness: colonies whose workers were fast to learn the association between yellow and reward also reversed this association rapidly. These results are inconsistent with a trade-off between learning speed and the reversal of a previously made association. On the contrary, they suggest that differences in learning performance and cognitive (behavioural) flexibility could reflect more general differences in colony learning ability. Hence, this study provides additional evidence to support the idea that rapid learning and behavioural flexibility have adaptive value.
format	article
author	Nigel E Raine Lars Chittka
author_facet	Nigel E Raine Lars Chittka
author_sort	Nigel E Raine
title	No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.
title_short	No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.
title_full	No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.
title_fullStr	No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.
title_full_unstemmed	No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.
title_sort	no trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/7341adbc89f04151b8c116bd7370d674
work_keys_str_mv	AT nigeleraine notradeoffbetweenlearningspeedandassociativeflexibilityinbumblebeesareversallearningtestwithmultiplecolonies AT larschittka notradeoffbetweenlearningspeedandassociativeflexibilityinbumblebeesareversallearningtestwithmultiplecolonies
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No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.

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