QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online December 22, 2003
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 393-398 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.00771

This Article Summary Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JEB Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Graham, P. Articles by Collett, T. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Graham, P. Articles by Collett, T. S. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The binding and recall of snapshot memories in wood ants (Formica rufa L.)

Paul Graham, Virginie Durier and Thomas S. Collett^*

School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK

View larger version (12K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Sketch of apparatus with the patterned curtain in place along one side of the arena. Between each training trial, cylinders, starting pen (S) and feeder (F) were shifted en bloc to a new position along a 2.5 m line indicated by the broken line. The patterned curtain was only fixed in place during the experiment illustrated in Fig. 5. For the other experiments, all the curtains surrounding the arena were white.

View larger version (39K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Approaches to an absent feeder (A,C) and search distributions between the two cylinders (B,D). The curtain on one side of the arena is patterned. Starting pen was 45 cm from the feeder. (A,B) Tests with small and large training cylinders. (C,D) Tests with two medium-sized cylinders. The darkest area represents 5.79% of the search in the training condition (N=61 paths) and 6.36% in the test condition (N=91 paths). The mean X positions of the two distributions differ significantly (Student's t-test; P<0.001, t=5.14, d.f.=150). Because of the long tail of the distribution, the mean X position of the distribution in D differs significantly from the predicted food site (Student's t-test; P<0.001, t=12.80, d.f.=90), while the mean X position of the distribution in B does not differ from the predicted food site (Student's t-test; P=0.324, t=0.99, d.f.=60). Distribution in D differs significantly from the distribution of Fig. 3B (Student's t-test; P=0.03, t=2.194, d.f.=146).

View larger version (33K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Where ants search for an absent feeder that is normally placed between two cylinders. Results pool data from two experiments in which the starting pen was either 40 cm or 100 cm from the feeder. (A) Tests with training cylinders of equal size. (B) Tests in which one cylinder is smaller and one larger than in training. Here, and in the remaining figures, the position of the feeder predicted by the snapshot is shown by a white circle. The contour plot represents the percentage of time the ants spent in each area; the darker the grey, the higher the percentage. The darkest area represents 9.8% of the total search in the training condition (N=71 paths) and 3.81% in the test condition (N=93 paths). The mean X positions (see Materials and methods) of the two distributions differ significantly (Wilcoxon two-sample test; P<0.001, t=8.04, d.f.=162).

View larger version (48K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Search distributions for an absent feeder that is normally placed between two cylinders. Starting pen was 70 cm from the feeder. (A) Tests with training cylinders of equal size. (B) Tests with two smaller cylinders. The darkest area represents 18.98% of the search in the training condition (N=41 paths) and 4.32% in the test condition (N=42 paths). (C,D) Search distribution with small cylinders, when ants were fixating within ±20° of the centre of one or other cylinder, as shown by the schematic ant above each distribution. The mean X positions of the two distributions differ significantly (Student's t-test; P=0.005, t=2.91, d.f.=72).

View larger version (37K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Search distributions for an absent feeder that is normally placed between two cylinders. A white curtain surrounded the experimental arena. Starting pen was 45 cm from the feeder. (A) Tests with one small and one large training cylinder. (B) Tests with two equal-sized cylinders. The darkest area represents 7.97% of the search in the training condition (N=53 paths) and 3.99% in the test condition (N=57 paths). The mean X positions of the two distributions differ significantly (Student's t-test; P=0.002, t=3.24, d.f.=108) from each other and from the predicted food sites (Student's t-test; A: P=0.005, t=2.96, d.f.=52; B: P<0.001, t=10.43, d.f.=56).

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us

Digg

Reddit

Technorati

Twitter