Social Learning in Insects: A Higher-Order Capacity?

Insects possess miniature brains but exhibit a sophisticated behavioral repertoire (Menzel and Giurfa, 2001; Giurfa, 2003, 2007; Chittka and Niven, 2009; Srinivasan, 2010; Avargues-Weber et al., 2011; Dyer, 2012; Zhang et al., 2012). Recent studies have indicated that insects copy the behavior of conspecifics in contexts as diverse as foraging, in the case of bumblebees (Leadbeater and Chittka, 2005, 2008; Worden and Papaj, 2005), mate choice in the case of flies (Mery et al., 2009), and predator avoidance in the case of crickets (Coolen et al., 2005). These reports yield new light on the cognitive richness of insect behavior, which seems to transcend basic Pavlovian and operant learning, and have received a wide coverage, thereby inducing a reappraisal of insect learning capabilities. Yet, the critical question is not whether or not insects achieve “marvelous feats,” but, essentially, how do they achieve them. Here I focus on recent studies on social learning in insects and analyze to what extent these learning cases exceed elemental-learning interpretations, i.e., interpretations based on simple stimulus–stimulus (Pavlovian) or behavior-stimulus (operant) associations.

• Publication year

  2012

• Venue

  Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

• Publication date

  2012-09-05

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00057PMID 22973211PMCID 3433704
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Visually Guided Decision Making in Foraging Honeybees

  2012cited by this paper
• Invertebrate learning and memory: Fifty years of olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response in honeybees.

  2012cited by this paper
• The mysterious cognitive abilities of bees: why models of visual processing need to consider experience and individual differences in animal performance

  2012cited by this paper
• Spread of social information and dynamics of social transmission within Drosophila groups.

  2012influential reference
• Second-order conditioning in Drosophila.

  2011cited by this paper
• Visual cognition in social insects.

  2011cited by this paper
• Honey bees as a model for vision, perception, and cognition.

  2010cited by this paper
• Olfactory learning in Drosophila.

  2010cited by this paper
• Belohnungsverzögerung beim Erlernen einer Farbe an einer künstlichen Futterstelle durch Honigbienen1,2

  2010cited by this paper
• Drosophila Cuticular Hydrocarbons Revisited: Mating Status Alters Cuticular Profiles

  2010cited by this paper
• Parametric and genetic analysis of Drosophila appetitive long‐term memory and sugar motivation

  2009cited by this paper
• Are bigger brains better?

  2009cited by this paper
• Roles of octopaminergic and dopaminergic neurons in appetitive and aversive memory recall in an insect

  2009cited by this paper
• Bumble-bees learn the value of social cues through experience

  2009cited by this paper
• Public versus personal information for mate copying in an invertebrate.

  2009influential reference
• Social transmission of nectar-robbing behaviour in bumble-bees

  2008cited by this paper
• Forward and backward second-order Pavlovian conditioning in honeybees.

  2007cited by this paper
• The dynamics of social learning in an insect model, the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

  2007cited by this paper
• Behavioral and neural analysis of associative learning in the honeybee: a taste from the magic well

  2007cited by this paper
• Drosophila olfactory memory: single genes to complex neural circuits

  2007cited by this paper
• Individual olfactory learning in Camponotus ants

  2006cited by this paper
• Social learning in noncolonial insects?

  2005influential reference
• Flower choice copying in bumblebees

  2005cited by this paper
• Olfactory memory formation in Drosophila: from molecular to systems neuroscience.

  2005cited by this paper
• A new mode of information transfer in foraging bumblebees?

  2005influential reference
• Further exploration into the adaptive design of the arthropod “microbrain”: I. Sensory and memory-processing systems

  2004cited by this paper
• Learning modulates the ensemble representations for odors in primary olfactory networks.

  2004cited by this paper
• Cognitive neuroethology: dissecting non-elemental learning in a honeybee brain.

  2003cited by this paper
• Cognitive architecture of a mini-brain: the honeybee.

  2001cited by this paper
• Flexibility in a single behavioral variable of Drosophila.

  2001cited by this paper
• Memory dynamics in the honeybee

  1999cited by this paper
• Classical conditioning of proboscis extension in honeybees (Apis mellifera).

  1983cited by this paper
• Classical conditioned response in the honey bee

  1961cited by this paper
• Conditioned Reflexes

  1928cited by this paper
• Cognitive architecture of a mini-brain : the honeybee

  year unknowncited by this paper

• Ethical Oversight for Insect Research

  2025cites this paper
• Are the principles of Pavlovian conditioning in insects conserved with those in mammals?

  2025cites this paper
• The Era beyond Eisemann et al. (1984): Insect Pain in the 21st Century

  2025cites this paper
• Neurochemical Correlates of Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off During Individual and Social Learning in Honey bees

  2025cites this paper
• Aversive social learning with a dead conspecific is achieved by Pavlovian conditioning in crickets.

  2024cites this paper
• The role of cognition in nesting

  2023cites this paper
• Honey bee colonies change their foraging decisions after in-hive experiences with unsuitable pollens.

  2023cites this paper
• Mechanisms and rules of social learning in crickets

  2023cites this paper
• Octopamine neurons mediate reward signals in social learning in an insect

  2023cites this paper
• Ecological and evolutionary consequences of selective interspecific information use

  2022cites this paper
• Effects of sequential exposures of sub-lethal doses of amitraz and thiacloprid on learning and memory of honey bee foragers, Apis mellifera

  2021cites this paper
• Insect-Inspired Robots: Bridging Biological and Artificial Systems

  2021cites this paper
• How does the solitary bee Centris (Heterocentris) analis (Fabricius) find its nest?

  2021cites this paper
• Appetitive and aversive social learning with living and dead conspecifics in crickets

  2020cites this paper
• A motion compensation treadmill for untethered wood ants (Formica rufa): evidence for transfer of orientation memories from free-walking training

  2020cites this paper
• Foraging Bumblebees Selectively Attend to Other Types of Bees Based on Their Reward-Predictive Value

  2020cites this paper
• Transfer of orientation memories in untethered wood ants (Formica rufa) from walking in an arena to walking on a motion compensation treadmill

  2020cites this paper
• Sonicating bees demonstrate flexible pollen extraction without instrumental learning

  2019cites this paper
• Emergence and Modularity in Life Sciences

  2019cites this paper
• Gaia—A Holobiont-like System Emerging From Interaction

  2019cites this paper
• Social Contact Acts as Appetitive Reinforcement and Supports Associative Learning in Honeybees.

  2019cites this paper
• Considerations for Insect Learning in Integrated Pest Management

  2019cites this paper
• Bumblebee social learning can lead to suboptimal foraging choices

  2018cites this paper
• Effects of Odorant-environment Complexity on Behavioral and Neural Plasticity at Different Time Scales

  2018cites this paper
• Neuromodulators and the Control of Aggression in Crickets

  2017cites this paper
• Learning in mosquito larvae (Aedes aegypti): Habituation to a visual danger signal.

  2017cites this paper
• Aversive learning of odor–heat associations in ants

  2017cites this paper
• Major fitness components in life history of euryoecious land snail Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Gastropoda: Hygromiidae)

  2016cites this paper
• Controlling the decision to fight or flee: the roles of biogenic amines and nitric oxide in the cricket†

  2016cites this paper
• How social network structure affects decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster

  2016cites this paper
• Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect

  2016cites this paper
• What Associative Learning in Insects Tells Us about the Evolution of Learned and Fixed Behavior

  2015influential citation
• Ecology of information: social transmission dynamics within groups of non-social insects

  2015cites this paper
• Information transfer beyond the waggle dance: observational learning in bees and flies

  2015cites this paper
• Visual attraction in Drosophila larvae develops during a critical period and is modulated by crowding conditions

  2015cites this paper
• Transmission sociale d’un choix de site de ponte au sein de groupes de Drosophiles

  2014cites this paper
• Bumblebees’ Bombus impatiens (Cresson) Learning: An Ecological Context

  2014cites this paper
• Local enhancement or stimulus enhancement? Bumblebee social learning results in a specific pattern of flower preference

  2014cites this paper
• Emerges from Simple Associations in an Insect Model

  2013cites this paper
• Invertebrate learning and cognition: relating phenomena to neural substrate.

  2013cites this paper
• Cognitive Components of Insect Behavior

  2013cites this paper
• Mechanisms of experience dependent control of aggression in crickets.

  2013cites this paper
• Social Learning in Bumblebees (Bombus impatiens): Worker Bumblebees Learn to Manipulate and Forage at Artificial Flowers by Observation and Communication within the Colony

  2013cites this paper