Foraging honeybees were trained individually in two-choice spatial pro
blems. Differentially rewarded for spatial alternation in Experiment 1
(''win-shift'' training), they showed instead a clear tendency to per
severate-that is, to prefer on each trial the location of reward on th
e immediately preceding trial. On the basis of the results of Experime
nts 2 and 3, in which one location was rewarded over shorter or longer
series of consecutive trials, an associative interpretation of the pe
rseveration found in the first experiment was rejected in favor of an
interpretation in terms of short-term spatial memory. Experiment 4, in
which the animals were rewarded on each trial for choosing either loc
ation, also showed perseveration. Honeybees, like rats, seem to rememb
er a rewarded location recently visited, but tend to return to it rath
er than, like rats, to avoid it.