Morgan BellGoldfish do remember
May 24th 2006 12:19
How do you show that fish have a memory? …let alone accuse one of being forgetful?
As ABC’s Dr Karl suggests, an animal’s behaviour gives us insight into their memory span. If an animal is able to learn something – such as how to respond to a certain type of music, for example – and is able to use that knowledge some time later, then it follows that the animal has remembered what it needed to know for that period of time.
Dr Karl cites a University of Edinburgh study of crimson spotted rainbow fish that found that some fish could remember the escape route out of their tank even 11 months after learning the route. Another study by Jonathan Lovell from Plymouth University's Institute of Marine Studies has successfully trained fish to swim towards a sound.
“The concept of fish having three second memories is a myth,” reported ABC News on more recent observations on veterinarian Dr Richmond Loh.
Fish were trained to associate pushing a lever with food, first by having a lever in the tank all the time, then having the lever only yield food during one hour each day. Dr Loh found that "it didn't take too long before the fish actually figured [it] out", hypothesising that goldfish memories may last as long as three months. He presented his findings at a veterinary conference in Hobart.
But a (very) similar study was conducted almost three years ago by researcher Phil Gee of Plymouth University! Why then does the myth persist, even after the repeated publishing all these findings?
Perhaps it is us, humans, who have the very poor memories…
(image from flickr.com)
As ABC’s Dr Karl suggests, an animal’s behaviour gives us insight into their memory span. If an animal is able to learn something – such as how to respond to a certain type of music, for example – and is able to use that knowledge some time later, then it follows that the animal has remembered what it needed to know for that period of time.
Dr Karl cites a University of Edinburgh study of crimson spotted rainbow fish that found that some fish could remember the escape route out of their tank even 11 months after learning the route. Another study by Jonathan Lovell from Plymouth University's Institute of Marine Studies has successfully trained fish to swim towards a sound.
“The concept of fish having three second memories is a myth,” reported ABC News on more recent observations on veterinarian Dr Richmond Loh.
Fish were trained to associate pushing a lever with food, first by having a lever in the tank all the time, then having the lever only yield food during one hour each day. Dr Loh found that "it didn't take too long before the fish actually figured [it] out", hypothesising that goldfish memories may last as long as three months. He presented his findings at a veterinary conference in Hobart.
But a (very) similar study was conducted almost three years ago by researcher Phil Gee of Plymouth University! Why then does the myth persist, even after the repeated publishing all these findings?
Perhaps it is us, humans, who have the very poor memories…
(image from flickr.com)
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