Goldfish memory myth busted
February 18th 2008 21:33
Alright, I get the feeling I might be poaching on Generation Z's territory with this story but I'd like to see one of them try and stop me.
A 15 year old school boy from South Australia has proven that goldfish have more than 3 second long memory spans and that they can learn from past experiences. Link.
If you can't be stuffed reading that, basically he shone a beacon into a fish tank and waited 30 seconds before dropping food around the beam of light. He did this for three weeks daily and in that time the fish went from taking a minute to swim to the beam to 4 seconds. Sub experiments were also conducted that showed the little fishy was also able to negotiate a maze in search of food.
Why is this story in a blog about youth? Because I'm running a little low on material for starters, and then because I wanted to expose our intelligence.
See, about a year ago there was a story on the news about some school girls that busted claim that Ribina fruit drink has '4 times the vitamin C content of orange juice'. So you see, science and smart things are within our grasp. We don't need to be old fogies that have been excommunicated by the church to make discoveries and revelations; we can be young and smart! Rejoice my peers, for there is hope for the planet yet. We can combat global warming. We can co-exist with the animals. We can sort this mess of a planet we inherited.
Oh and stop sticking your goldfish in small tanks because they don't find them new and exciting every 3 seconds., they find them cramped and cruel... ('m assuming).
A 15 year old school boy from South Australia has proven that goldfish have more than 3 second long memory spans and that they can learn from past experiences. Link.
If you can't be stuffed reading that, basically he shone a beacon into a fish tank and waited 30 seconds before dropping food around the beam of light. He did this for three weeks daily and in that time the fish went from taking a minute to swim to the beam to 4 seconds. Sub experiments were also conducted that showed the little fishy was also able to negotiate a maze in search of food.
Why is this story in a blog about youth? Because I'm running a little low on material for starters, and then because I wanted to expose our intelligence.
See, about a year ago there was a story on the news about some school girls that busted claim that Ribina fruit drink has '4 times the vitamin C content of orange juice'. So you see, science and smart things are within our grasp. We don't need to be old fogies that have been excommunicated by the church to make discoveries and revelations; we can be young and smart! Rejoice my peers, for there is hope for the planet yet. We can combat global warming. We can co-exist with the animals. We can sort this mess of a planet we inherited.
Oh and stop sticking your goldfish in small tanks because they don't find them new and exciting every 3 seconds., they find them cramped and cruel... ('m assuming).
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