Date of Award

1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bauer, Gordon

Area of Concentration

Biopsychology

Abstract

Quantitative abilities in fish have been previously observed, including in natural behaviors such as shoaling and various laboratory tasks. Two-choice visual discrimination tasks require individuals to differentiate between stimuli, and when conditioned, individuals can demonstrate learning of stimulus value. The concept of understanding ordinal relationships has been reported in goldfish (Carassius auratus) before, although no studies have explicitly tested primarily size discrimination. The current study tested four goldfish on their ability to perceive and swim through large vs. small holes, using an adapted methodology and expansion of similar literature. It also tested what the goldfish were learning during the discrimination task. Overall, the goldfish showed the ability to discriminate between sizes and understand the relationship between stimuli, but there was a notable preference for the larger of the two holes. These results revealed that goldfish do possess the ability to tell large from small, but have a size preference that needs to be addressed in future studies. The possession of ordinal relationships is an important foundation for further studies on the mathematical concepts of fish.

Download

Share

COinS