Ecology

Biology

Social animal

Transitive relation

Materials science

Hymenoptera

Social psychology

Range (aeronautics)

Economics

Market economy

Computer science

Dominance hierarchy

Paper wasp

Hierarchy

Psychology

Mathematics

Inference

Artificial intelligence

Composite material

Combinatorics

Zoology

Polistes

Vespidae

Aggression

Biology Letters

Transitive inference (TI) is a form of logical reasoning that involves using known relationships to infer unknown relationships (A > B; B > C; then A > C). TI has been found in a wide range of vertebrates but not in insects. Here, we test whether Polistes dominula and Polistes metricus paper wasps can solve a TI problem. Wasps were trained to discriminate between five elements in series (A0B-, B0C-, C0D-, D0E-), then tested on novel, untrained pairs (B versus D). Consistent with TI, wasps chose B more frequently than D. Wasps organized the trained stimuli into an implicit hierarchy and used TI to choose between untrained pairs. Species that form social hierarchies like Polistes may be predisposed to spontaneously organize information along a common underlying dimension. This work contributes to a growing body of evidence that the miniature nervous system of insects does not limit sophisticated behaviours.

Transitive inference in <i>Polistes</i> paper wasps

Transitive inference in Polistes paper wasps