Testing for responding by exclusion in a simple discrimination baseline in honeybees (Melipona quadrifasciata)

• Grant number: 14/20444-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2015
• End date: January 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Deisy das Graças de Souza
• Grantee: Livia Scienza
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Difficulties in teaching complex discriminative repertoires to humans with developmental disabilities and to non-humans might be related to inconsistent control by S+ and S-. There is an extensive literature on discriminative learning in bees. These data suggest that these organisms can be used as a model for investigating responding by exclusion by means of a sistematic investigation on stimulus control relations by selection and by rejection. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the establishment of stimulus control by selection and by rejection in a simple discrimination task with bees. Ten honeybees will be trained to discriminate between two visual stimuli, blue and yellow. Baseline acquisition will be followed by a test for stimulus control by selection and control by rejection. The stimulus previously defined as S+ and an undefined stimulus will be presented simultaneously during selection control probe trials. Stimulus control by selection will be defined as a response to the S+ stimulus, instead of a response to the undefined stimulus. The stimulus previously defined as S- and another undefined stimulus will be presented simultaneously during rejection control probe trials. Stimulus control by rejection will be defined as a response to the undefined stimulus, instead of a response to the S- stimulus.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SCIENZA, LIVIA; DE CARVALHO, MARILIA PINHEIRO; MACHADO, ARMANDO; MORENO, ANTONIO MAURICIO; BISCASSI, NATALIA; DE SOUZA, DEISY DAS GRACAS. Simple discrimination in stingless bees (Melipona quadrifasciata): Probing for select- and reject-stimulus control. JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR, v. 112, n. 1, p. 74-87, JUL 2019. (08/57705-8, 14/20444-3, 14/50909-8, 15/06491-1)