SHORT-TERM SPATIAL MEMORY IN HONEYBEES

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.