Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

Generalization, discrimination, and extinction are key concepts in operant conditioning that influence how behaviors are learned and maintained.
Generalization occurs when a behavior reinforced in one context is performed in similar situations. For instance, a student who studies diligently for calculus and receives excellent grades might apply the same study habits to psychology and history, expecting similar results. Generalization shows how learning in one setting can influence behavior in...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Phenotypic and neuropeptidergic control of appetitive behavior in honey bees (Apis mellifera).

Communications biology·2026

Same author

Attention, awareness and flexibility in honeybees: divergent effects of distraction on delay versus trace reversal learning.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2026

Same author

Stimuli that fit: a biology-aligned approach to numerical cognition research.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2026

Same author

Emotional contagion of positive mood in insects.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition·2026

Same author

Cognitive neuroscience and miniature brains-Dissecting higher-order learning in the brain of honey bees.

Comptes rendus biologies·2025

Same author

Seasonal and nutritional modulation of honeybee olfactory learning by the short neuropeptide F.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees Apis mellifera L.

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees Apis mellifera L.

Published on: December 12, 2012

Higher-order discrimination learning by honeybees in a virtual environment.

Alexis Buatois¹, Lou Laroche¹, Gregory Lafon¹

¹Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, CNRS, University of Toulouse, Toulouse Cedex 09, France.

The European Journal of Neuroscience

|December 1, 2019

Summary

Honeybees can learn visual negative patterning (NP) in a virtual reality setting. While some bees mastered this non-elemental learning, others used alternative strategies or failed to inhibit elemental processing.

Keywords:

insect learning negative patterning non-elemental learning virtual reality visual cognition visual learning

More Related Videos

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Published on: July 21, 2014

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Published on: October 5, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees Apis mellifera L.

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees Apis mellifera L.

Published on: December 12, 2012

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Published on: July 21, 2014

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Published on: October 5, 2018

Area of Science:

Animal cognition
Neuroethology
Behavioral neuroscience

Background:

Non-elemental learning, such as negative patterning (NP), presents a cognitive challenge due to ambiguous reinforcement outcomes.
NP requires distinguishing a compound stimulus from its individual components (e.g., A+, B+ vs. AB-).
Honeybees are the only insects known to master NP, primarily studied in the olfactory domain.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate honeybees' capacity for NP discrimination in the visual domain.
To utilize a virtual reality (VR) environment for controlled visual learning experiments.
To explore the mechanisms underlying visual NP learning in insects.

Main Methods:

A virtual reality (VR) setup with a tethered honeybee on a spherical treadmill.
Visual stimuli, including composite and single-colored gratings, projected onto a screen.
Training bees on a visual NP task (alternating green/blue bars vs. single colors).

Main Results:

Bees learned a composite grating elementally and generalized to single colors.
Following NP training, 25% of bees inhibited elemental processing, favoring single-colored stimuli.
Other bees employed alternative strategies, achieving partial NP learning.

Conclusions:

Honeybees demonstrate capacity for visual negative patterning, albeit with varied success.
The VR environment provides a novel platform for studying insect visual learning.
Results suggest diverse strategies employed by bees to solve non-elemental learning tasks.