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

Observational Learning

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's observational learning, also known as imitation or modeling, occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior. It is a quicker process than operant conditioning. A well-known example is the Bobo doll study, where children who saw an adult acting aggressively towards the doll were more likely to act aggressively when left alone, compared to those who observed a nonaggressive adult. Many psychologists view observational learning as a form of latent learning...

Altruism

Altruism

Altruistic behaviors are “unselfish” behaviors—those that help another individual at the expense of the individual carrying out the behavior. Despite the negative consequences for the altruistic animal, these behaviors are thought to have evolved for several reasons.

Introduction to Learning

Introduction to Learning

Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skills through practice or experience, leading to long-lasting behavioral changes. This acquisition occurs through interaction with the environment and requires practice or experience. For instance, mastering a skill such as surfing requires considerable practice and experience, highlighting the essential role of repeated interactions with the environment in learning.
In contrast to learned behaviors, unlearned behaviors such as crying, sexual...

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious mimicry occurs when individuals alter their mannerisms to match the behaviors and expressions of those nearby, without intention.

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...

What is Behavior?

What is Behavior?

Behaviors are actions that an organism engages in—they can be related to finding food, reproducing, defending against threats, and many other possible actions. Behaviors include activities related to the environment around the animal—such as migration—as well as social interactions within a species or population. Many behaviors involve motor output—that is, muscle movements—while others involve less visible actions, such as learning.

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Male bumblebees sustain mate-seeking by adjusting foraging to environmental conditions.

Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology·2026

Same author

Synaptic high-frequency jumping synchronises vision to high-speed behaviour.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Aversive memory and extinction learning for noxious stimuli and aversive tastants in bumblebees.

The Journal of experimental biology·2026

Same author

The audience shapes the information content of the honey bee waggle dance.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same author

The exploration of consciousness in insects.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2025

Same author

Duration discrimination in the bumblebee <i>Bombus terrestris</i>.

Biology letters·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 1, 2025

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

Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone.

Alice D Bridges^1,2,3, Amanda Royka^4,5, Tara Wilson⁴

¹School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK. a.d.bridges@sheffield.ac.uk.

|March 6, 2024

Summary

Bumblebees demonstrate cumulative culture by socially learning complex behaviors, like opening a two-step puzzle box, that are too difficult for individuals to invent alone. This challenges the idea that such learning is unique to humans.

More Related Videos

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Published on: October 5, 2018

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Published on: November 15, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 1, 2025

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

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Published on: October 5, 2018

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Published on: November 15, 2014

Area of Science:

Ethology
Animal Behavior
Cognitive Science

Background:

Animal culture involves socially learned behaviors persisting over time.
Cumulative culture, where innovations build on prior ones, is increasingly observed in animals.
Human cumulative culture includes behaviors too complex for individual lifetime discovery.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate cumulative culture in an invertebrate species.
To determine if bumblebees can socially learn complex, multi-step behaviors beyond individual innovation capacity.

Main Methods:

Trained demonstrator bumblebees to open a novel two-step puzzle box.
Assessed naive observer bumblebees' ability to learn the task through social observation.
Compared social learning success with individual learning attempts over extended periods.

Main Results:

A significant proportion of naive bumblebees learned the two-step puzzle box task from demonstrators.
Individual bumblebees failed to independently discover or innovate the complex behavior.
Socially learned behaviors were acquired even when intermediate steps were not directly rewarded.

Conclusions:

Bumblebees exhibit cumulative culture, acquiring complex behaviors via social learning.
This capacity challenges the notion that complex social learning is exclusive to humans.
Social learning facilitates the transmission of behaviors too difficult for individual re-innovation.