Evaluation Summary:
The authors investigate what type and degree of information (either absolute, relative, or a weighted combination of both) is used by bumblebees when retrieving the value of an item. There is recent evidence in humans and birds that suggests that these organisms use a combination of absolute memories and remembering of subjective ranking in these tasks. The authors conclude that bumblebees indeed use remembered ranking, but that they seem not to be able to retain (or at least utilise) absolute property information for very long. The absence of relevant work in invertebrates would make this study a potentially valuable addition to the scientific literature.
(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)