Alteration in the significance of objects in the environment of the fighting fish Beta splendens Regan / Bedeutungswechsel der Dinge in der Umwelt des Kampffisches Betta splendens Regan
Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Physiologie, (1933)Abstract
Under one condition (e.g. appearance of a revolving sectored disk) the fish was trained to feed from tweezers, but under another condition (e.g. appearance of a gray disk) the fish was lightly struck with the tweezers, and learned to swim away from the scene. In "spatial" experiments the fish was able to avoid the gray disk and to approach when any other disk appeared (that is, any disk with heterogeneous surface), although the sectored disk was most effective. Other fishes, trained to approach the gray disk, approached any disk of homogeneous surface (e.g. white, yellow), while giving the "fighting reaction" in response to the sectored disk. In the "temporal" experiments, the subject learned to swim from any disk that was presented within 3-5 seconds after tweezers-with-food had been shown, and to approach at any time within the following 40 seconds. Analyses of the various reaction-types are offered, in terms of involved internal and external factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)