The experiments involved showing both college students and goldfish various sets of dots on a computer screen and asking them to estimate the number of dots. The researchers found that the fish were remarkably accurate in estimating the number of dots, performing similarly to the average college student participant.
Interestingly, both college students and fish exhibited a similar tendency to underestimate the number of objects when the number was small and overestimate the number when it was large. This bias is commonly known as the "distance effect" in numerical cognition and is often observed in humans.
The findings suggest that college students and goldfish share similar cognitive mechanisms for numerical approximation and that these mechanisms may have evolved early in evolutionary history. The study provides valuable insights into the evolution of numerical cognition and highlights the potential for studying cognitive processes in non-mammalian species.
Here are some additional details about the study:
The researchers used goldfish (Carassius auratus) as the animal model in the study because they are known to have good visual acuity and cognitive flexibility.
The participants in the college student group were undergraduate students from the University of Padova.
The study included multiple experiments with different variations of the tasks to assess the accuracy and consistency of numerical estimation in both college students and goldfish.
The results showed that goldfish were not only accurate in estimating the number of dots but also able to discriminate between different numerical values, exhibiting a basic understanding of numerical relations.
The findings have implications for understanding the cognitive capacities of non-mammalian species and underscore the importance of cross-species comparisons in studying the evolution of cognitive abilities.
