Fish do/don't anticipate things? (was: "ARAs" against Game chickens)

dh@. wrote:
On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 05:25:50 GMT, Rudy Canoza wrote:


NanK wrote:

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

No. That's stimulus response, *not* anticipation.


That stimulus response *is* anticipation Goo.

I would have to agree. "Anticipation" simply means sensing that an event
is going to occur. If somebody punches you a couple of times in the
face, you're naturally going to remember the pain and try to avoid his
hand next time you see it coming towards you - that's anticipation, and
it's done without using any abstract thought. But somewhere in that
fish's tiny brain there is a piece of data being stored which tells it
that there's going to be food when it sees the image of a person in
front of it's tank. This information was not genetically inherited from
it's parents, not will it pass it on through it's DNA to it's offspring,
so it can't be called instinct. It is, in fact, a memory - learned
information. It's a very primitive sort of learning, just barely above
the level of instinct, but learning nevertheless. But it does not imply
or require that the fish is consciously thinking or reflecting about
what it's doing.

- Logic316




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