On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:40:20 -0400, Logic316 wrote:

NanK wrote:
Yes, they do! When they see you outside the tank, don't they wiggle
with anticipation of being fed???

n

Even the simplest organisms have some capacity for learning when it's
directly related to their survival. If a fish always sees a person when
it's being fed, it will associate the image of a person with food and
will exhibit feeding behavior every time it sees somebody, even before
any food is dropped in front of them.

Goo insists that no animals can anticipate, but that humans are
somehow projecting their emotions into the animals causing them
to behave in a way which gives the obvious appearance that they
are experiencing them themselves...most likely through voodoo or
something...it's bizarre, whatever it is.

In the wild and in captivity, this
ability to associate events ensures that the smartest fish gets to the
food faster than the dumb ones and is thus more likely to survive longer
to pass on it's "smart" genes.

I've explained to Goo that without the ability to anticipate, hawks
would starve to death. They wouldn't look for food if they didn't
anticipate finding it. That seemed as clear an example as I could
think of, but he still can't understand.

The only question I have, could such a fish (one having learned to
associate the presence of humans with food) learn to distinguish between
humans and other large creatures who show up in front of it's tank who
don't feed it (like dogs or cats)?

- Logic316

Most likely they can learn to avoid things as well as anticipate
getting food from them. Amusingly, Goo can understand that animals
feel fear and anger, but can't understand that they also feel pride,
anticipation and disappointment. It's amusing, but in an almost pitiable
way.