The Honeybee Y maze was used in an experiment by Julie Benard and Martin Giurfa (2004), to assess learning and memory as it applies to transitive Inferences in honeybees

The apparatus is Y-shaped with a UV-transparent Plexiglas ceiling to ensure natural daylight conditions within the maze. A sliding door guaranteed that only one bee at a time could enter the maze. On their back walls, a visual stimulus was presented. Only one of the two stimuli was reinforced with sucrose solution. The nonreinforced stimulus presented a similar but empty micropipette in its center

Once in the maze, the bee had to pass through an entrance hole in the middle of a frontal panel to enter into the decision chamber. In this chamber, the bee had to choose between the two arms of the maze

Specification

• Diameter of entrance hole: 5 cm
• Height of maze: 20 cm
• Length of maze arms: 40 cm
• Width of maze arms: 20 cm
• Width of sliding door: 27 cm
• Distance between entrance hole and decision and arms: 20 cm
• Length of maze entrance: 17 cm