Environmental Change Enhances Cognitive Abilities in Fish

Alexander Kotrschal, Barbara Taborsky

Introduction

The theory of evolution states that It is not the strongest of the

species that survives it is the one that is the most adaptable to change

(para. 1). This theory is supported by this specific study that was conducted

by researchers in a laboratory and it will be explained in a detailed form on

this paper. The researches chose this subject for the reason that they wanted

to know if fishes could be able to increase their cognitive abilities when their

environment are changed. Juvenile and adult fishes are going to be studied

and researches will gather information of how these fishes would react when

their environment are changed and if the fishes that adapt to the new

environment would increase their cognitive and learning abilities. The

researches hypothesis is that not only the fishes will adapt to the new

environment, they also will increase their learning abilities.

Materials and Methods

Several learning tests were used by the scientist during this study. The

first test was the experimental set-up, during this test the scientists changed

the environment where the fishes would live. The second test was the

training phase, this test consisted of using two visual cues(red cross and a

blue square) so the fishes that were hiding could be able to see both cues.
The third test was the test phase and consisted of dropping food to see if the

fishes would choose to eat it or not.

A method that the scientist used was a schematic representation to

test the cognitive abilities of the fishes.

Results

The results of the study was that when juvenile and adult fishes were

moved from the old environment to the new environment their learning

abilities were affected by the average amount of food that fishes consumed

when they were juvenile. In other words fishes that consumed enough food

when they are juvenile are more likely to increase cognitive and learning

abilities when their environment changes.

Something that was surprising to the scientist was that they were not

expecting that the body size of fishes are related to their cognitive abilities.

Discussion

The scientists were able to gather enough data to come to a

conclusion. The different tests that the put the fishes on were very helpful.

The information gathered by the scientist proves that the fishes that

had a change in their food ration outperformed those fishes that had

constant food rations when it comes to increasing cognitive abilities.

The study didnt have any limitations when testing the fishes.
 Works Cited

Kotrschal Alexander, Taborsky Barbara. Environmental Change Enhances

Cognitive Abilities in Fish. PLOS Biology. 2010. Web. Feb. 2017.