The Learning of Detours by Wrasse (Ctenolabrus rupestrisL.)

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Abstract
1. This paper deals with certain experiments on training fish (Ctenolabrus rupestris L.) to swim round obstructions to reach food, for the purpose of investigating how their learned response was developed. The whole question as to how learning which involves “problem-solving” is rightly to be interpreted and harmonized with our knowledge of conditioned responses, presents difficulties which have not yet been adequately faced.2. A description is given of the results of experiments carried out on eleven fish. The fish had to learn a detour route either into a pot or round glass plates. Attention may be drawn to the great diversity in the behaviour of individual fish, both in their reactions to the obstruction at different stages of training, and in the method by which they succeeded in passing it. Some individuals are evidently more capable of profiting by experience than others.

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