Place and position learning in honeybees (Apis mellifera).

Foraging honeybees (Apis mellifera) were trained individually to choose between 2 identical targets set close together on a large table in a heterogeneous surround. Discrimination was facilitated by the introduction of a small object that was nearer to 1 target than the other. It was also facilitated by the introduction of a longer object or a curved shield that was not differentially placed with respect to the targets but designed to encourage a fixed orientation to them. The results support a distinction between place learning and position learning in honeybees. When a honeybee is trained to choose between two tar-gets that differ in some integral property, such as color, the locations of the targets must be interchanged to dem-onstrate discrimination of color apart from location. Dis-crimination of location, which may be evident in a prefer-ence displayed at the outset of training or established by differential reinforcement (Couvillon, Klosterhalfen, & Bitterman, 1983; Klosterhalfen, Fischer, & Bitterman, 1978), is interesting because location is not an integral