The performance of cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus, in a reversal learning task varies across experimental paradigms.

ABSTRACT: Testing performance in controlled laboratory experiments is a powerful tool for understanding the extent and evolution of cognitive abilities in non-human animals. However, cognitive testing is prone to a number of potential biases, which, if unnoticed or unaccounted for, may affect the conclusions drawn. We examined whether slight modifications to the experimental procedure and apparatus used in a spatial task and reversal learning task affected performance outcomes in the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus (hereafter "cleaners"). Using two-alternative forced-choice tests, fish had to learn to associate a food reward with a side (left or right) in their holding aquarium. Individuals were tested in one of four experimental treatments that differed slightly in procedure and/or

SUBMITTER: Gingins S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5949057 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature