Abstract
IT is well known that prior knowledge or experience aids us tremendously in uncovering objects that are poorly visible, partially hidden or camouflaged1–3. Is such enhancement in performance unique to higher animals? Here we find that bees cannot be trained directly to distinguish between differently shaped, camouflaged figures. They can, however, learn to break the camouflage and make the discrimination if they are trained initially on a simpler task that exposes them to shapes that are presented later in camouflage. Evidently, even organisms with relatively simple nervous systems can use prior experience to advantage in processing visual images.
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Zhang, S., Srinivasan, M. Prior experience enhances pattern discrimination in insect vision. Nature 368, 330–332 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/368330a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/368330a0
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