Abstract
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1.
In training experiments with honey bees, the discrimination of 6-pointed stars of different form and contrast is measured. The following assumptions allow a quantitative description of these results.
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2.
The bee computes the two-dimensional cross correlation coefficient r xy between the two shapes to be discriminated (the rewarded shape and the one seen at present). This presupposes, that the rewarded shape is stored in the memory point by point.
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In addition to the cross correlation coefficient, the shapes are discriminated by means of their contour length and their contrast.
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A noise is superimposed on the values stored in the memory. Because of this noise, the accuracy of detecting the outline of the stored shape depends on the value of the contrast. The lower the contrast, the less accurately is the outline detectable. The exactness of the stored value of the contrast itself is also diminished by the noise.
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5.
Although the results of these and of most previously published experiments can be described quantitatively by this model, some other results (Anderson, 1972; Mazochin-Porshnyakov, 1969) can certainly not be described in this way. In such cases, it seems more probable that bees use abstract parameters to discriminate the shapes because of the particular experimental method.
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Cruse, H. An application of the cross-correlation coefficient to pattern recognition of honey bees. Kybernetik 15, 73–84 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00270651
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00270651