Fish Can Count to Four 103
Khemist writes "Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four. Previously it was known that fish could tell big shoals from small ones, but researchers have now found that they have a limited ability to count how many other fish are nearby. This means that they have similar counting abilities to those observed in apes, monkeys and dolphins and humans with very limited mathematical ability."
Or not.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I;m not sure (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Or not.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think a similar principle applies to this experiment. They showed that goldfish can count to four. Whether this signifies 'intelligence' in some abstract sense is a different question, and not really relevant here.
Re:Or not.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Research on fish intelligence is showing some interesting results -- here is an impressive video of fish swimming in unison in response to hand signals . Science is busily proving that fish are smarter [nootropics.com] than most people realize [telegraph.co.uk].
If you believe in the theory of evolution, which most Slashdotters hopefully do, this will only make sense -- learning, reasoning, emotions, and other forms of mental activity had to evolve through different life forms before reaching their highest expression in humans. If you didn't believe that, then you would have to believe that all of the human mental gifts just somehow spontaneously "appeared" out of nowhere. (or were granted through "creation" for example).
Re:I;m not sure (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyway, the point is that fish aren't mindless automatons like everyone thinks. They have a (limited) ability to learn (simple) things.
so off the mark (Score:2, Interesting)
If I look over at a group of 2 diff. gangs and by instinct I will go for the bigger gang, then chances are that I will go for the visibly larger gang. Now to test if they were actually counting, I would place 3 HUGE almost mutated fish in one group and 4 excessively small fish in another then see what the result would be. The size of the 4 fish would have to be smaller then the size of the 3 fish together
There would be no counting, its the overall size that affects their brain at a visual level, not sitting there 1 + 1 + 1 I guess I'll go with the left group....they are affected also by movement so if the school of fish all go to the left, they see the change as it happens by the group, not that they think if they go left then i go left...
I really think sometimes studies like these actually make people stupid.
Re:I;m not sure (Score:4, Interesting)