Skyline retention and retroactive interference in the navigating Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti

Cody A. Freas*, Christopher Whyte, Ken Cheng

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    20 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Visual cues commonly aid solitary foraging ants. Specifically, foragers can use the skyline where terrestrial landmarks meet the sky. Foraging ants show a remarkable affinity to retain these terrestrial cues, developing lifelong memories of the nest site panorama. Here we explore foragers’ ability to retain skyline cues of resource locations at some distance from the nest through experiments with artificial skylines erected around a resource location. We also tested the foragers’ memories of one skyline at several time points after the skyline was replaced by a different one. During retention testing, foragers appear able to retain robust memories of these skylines over periods (5 days) that surpass their average life span. Exposure to the nest panorama during these periods did not interfere with navigational performance at the distant skyline. Foragers in the replacement experiment initially oriented correctly to both skylines. Thereafter, the foragers’ headings in tests with the first skyline gradually shifted away from the correct homeward direction. We argue that new skyline memories cause retroactive interference in the retention of previously learned skylines. Skyline memories may compete during memory retrieval, or may be retrieved in association with context cues present in the current testing paradigm such as vector length.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)353-367
    Number of pages15
    JournalJournal of Comparative Physiology A
    Volume203
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2017

    Keywords

    • Desert ant
    • Memory
    • Navigation
    • Retroactive interference
    • Skyline

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