Department of Biopsychology, University of Bochum, 150 Universitätsstraße, D-44801, Bochum, Germany.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2018 Dec;25(6):2024-2036. doi: 10.3758/s13423-018-1441-x.
Bees tend to avoid or to show indifference to uncertain ("risky") relative to certain ("safe") food rewards, whether in nectar volume or in nectar concentration. The unattractiveness of uncertain food rewards is also sometimes independent of the energy budget of bees. This pattern of responses seems to differ from that observed in mammals and birds, which may exhibit a strong preference for the uncertainty over the certainty of food delivery on a given trial in dual-choice tasks. Upon analysis of the conditions that determine preference and aversion for uncertain food rewards in "higher" vertebrates, I attempt to demonstrate that bees react to uncertainty in a similar way. It is argued that, because of their social organization and of the type of resources they seek, bees are essentially exposed to situations in which "higher" vertebrates find reward uncertainty unattractive as well. The nature of their representation of food distribution is discussed, and it is suggested that scout bees may differ from recruits with respect to uncertainty processing.
蜜蜂往往会回避或对不确定（“风险”）的食物奖赏表现出漠不关心，而偏爱确定（“安全”）的食物奖赏，无论这种奖赏是在花蜜量还是在花蜜浓度上有所不同。不确定食物奖赏的无吸引力有时也与蜜蜂的能量预算无关。这种反应模式似乎与哺乳动物和鸟类观察到的不同，哺乳动物和鸟类在双选择任务中，在给定的试验中，对食物传递的不确定性表现出强烈的偏好。在分析“高等”脊椎动物决定对不确定食物奖赏的偏好和厌恶的条件时，我试图证明蜜蜂以类似的方式对不确定性做出反应。有人认为，由于它们的社会组织和它们所寻求的资源类型，蜜蜂本质上处于“高等”脊椎动物也会发现奖励不确定性没有吸引力的情况下。讨论了它们对食物分布的表示的性质，并提出侦察蜂可能在不确定性处理方面与新兵不同。
