Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bauer, Gordon

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

This study aims to answer two questions: Can goldfish learn complex behaviors through a simple association sequence taught through chaining? If so, what did the goldfish learn, the path that was taught or the sequence of behaviors taught? This was done by training experimentally experienced goldfish (N=3) to perform three behaviors: swim through a hoop, through a tunnel, or up a chimney. Over a total of 68 days of training, it was determined that all three subjects were able to learn a sequence of two behaviors through chaining. There were then two days of extinction testing in which the second behavior was moved to a new position in the tank to test if the fish learned the behavior irrespective of location cues. During the first testing day, the subjects continued to the original location of the second behavior rather than moving to the new location of the second task. This suggests the subjects learned the path of the behaviors and not the sequence of behaviors. The second test suggested that the position of the experimenter, rotated 180°, appeared to affect the path, although the influence of the previous day’s testing could not be ruled out. The results of this study suggest that goldfish can learn complex behaviors through chaining and that they learn the path of behaviors rather than the sequence of behaviors.

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