Steve Morvell - Glass houses - Domestic goldfish (2006) - Pastel on paper Colorfix
This article begins a long-delayed mini-series on the memory of fish and their ability to 'cognitive, with a part of articles that will deal with' the skills 'cognitive and the connection between fishing and memory and a second section will deal with' the subject closely related of pain perception in fish and ethics of sport fishing or not.
Ready? Let's start!
I have often heard the phrase "you have the memory of a goldfish .." and sometimes I used it myself.
was a cliché that I truly believed for years but, as I discovered with a little bit of research later, and 'deeply flawed.
It is often said that the goldfish has a memory of only 3 seconds. It all goes back
to a popular myth, perhaps stimulated by the fact that the goldfish and 'an animal often kept in tanks too small for his size. The idea is' probably created to justify the size of these tanks, "so his memory is reset every 3 seconds .."
They even called a movie, however, 'has nothing to do with the goldfish but but rather' is a nice sentimental Irish meatloaf, not recommended unless you are fans of the genre ..
But it 's true that the goldfish, and more' fish in general have little memory?
The interesting experiment semiscientifico of Mythbusters, they teach a course complex with a goldfish in the food stimulus and testing the memory in the long run
Actually 'no, as already' and early 'just an urban legend.
The goldfish in reality 'has the capacity' of learning and memory retention quite developed compared to other fish and far from negligible. Apart from purely
television experiments, as above, were made a series of studies on the ability 'of the goldfish brain and from which' showed that the area homologous to the hippocampus of their brain is not 'completely undeveloped, so they have good capacity 'of orientation in space, unable to connect events to a context and then to relate to others and the environment.
seems that the time of acquisition (ie 'the time it takes to learn something) and a few hours or a few individual episodes, while the retention time (ie' the time it takes to forget something) is of the order a few months.
Overall the result is a very different picture from that painted by the common consciousness.
What is true for the goldfish, well prepared so 'easy to keep in the aquarium, can' be compared to other species?
In general, 'but with many reservations, several years ago and' found that individual species (and even individual people) of fish have plasticity 'different. Their brains then undergo seasonal changes and develop different parts of the brain in different ways according to environmental stimuli, their genetic code and their experiences.
And in terms of fishing do you mean? Well
and 'evidence that some species learn a lot better than others to avoid capture. For example, carp and rainbow trout are not subject to fishing pressure bite very easily in the early days but catches fall significantly within a few days' cause the fish caught and released have become very wary of baits.
Other species such as pike have a memory capacity and a 'learning much lower. Recent studies show that when subjected to pressure from the fishing pike tend to "forget" the attempts capture 2-4 days ago. The result is' a catch rate that does not collapse as in other species.
In short, it means that the fish generally have all the skills' needed to recognize a bait, associate it with the experience of capture and avoid it in future. Probably only the duration and intensity 'of this memory varies with the species.
Carp-fishing, fish one of the more 'difficult in areas with high fishing pressure (Image AnglingTimes )
But it' s just a matter of species?
appear not because 'the capacity' of learning and memory in addition to varying individual-level are influenced by variables such as the development environment. In general
fish grown in highly variable conditions, a less uniform in the presence of predators and in most environments 'large tend to develop more memory and greater ability' Association spatial / situational.
After seeing that the fish can be anything but 'stupid as you think the next article in this series will try' to take stock of the situation on a subject and that 'the logical consequence:
fish feel pain?
Bibliography:
Kuparinen et al. 2010
van Raat 1985 and Post 2005 poorten
Askey et al. 2006
Portavella et al. Beukema 1970 2002
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