Cognition in Bees: From Stimulus Reception to Behavioral Change

Recent foraging models split the problems animals face into two stages: (1) the updating of information about alternative food sources and (2) the determination of behavior subject to this information (reviewed by Ka­celnik and Krebs, 1985;Kacelnik et al., 1987;Stephens and Krebs, 1986). The cognitive abilities of different foragers are crucial at both stages. Spe­cies with limited cognitive abilities may rely heavily on relatively restrictive and inflexible decision rules. On the other hand, species with superior abilities to acquire information about the distribution, availability, and relative profitability of different food types may show superior and more flexible performance in foraging tasks (Pyke et al., 1977;Orians, 1981;Kamil and Mauldin, 1987;Schoener, 1987). In spite of the crucial impor­tance of cognition for foraging performance, foraging studies, with few exceptions, rarely include information about the actual cognitive abilities of the animals under investigation. Nevertheless, all studies of foraging behavior make explicit or implicit assumptions about what animals perceive and know.