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. 2016 Aug 31;283(1837):20160551. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0551

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Ants trained with absolute conditioning learn faster and better than ants trained with differential conditioning. The figure shows the percentage of ants responding with the maxilla-labium extension response (%MaLER) to the rewarded odour after absolute conditioning (CS+, green full dots) and to the rewarded and punished odours after differential conditioning (CS+, blue full dots; CS−, blue empty dots) along the conditioning trials. The levels of response to the trained odours in the tests are shown by single dots in the same graphs. (a) Hexanal+ (n = 29) versus hexanal+/octanal− (n = 38); (b) heptanal+ (n = 30) versus heptanal+/nonanal− (n = 40); (c) octanal+ (n = 30) versus octanal+/hexanal− (n = 41); and (d) nonanal+ (n = 28) versus nonanal+/heptanal− (n = 41). All odours were successfully learnt and all odour combinations were successfully differentiated. The presence of the CS− in differential conditioning reduced the learning success of the CS+ as shown by lower rates of acquisition and lower levels of responses to the CS+ in the test, compared with ants trained with absolute conditioning.