TY - JOUR
T1 - From fright to anticipation
T2 - Using aversive light stimuli to investigate reward conditioning in large groups of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
AU - Bratland, Silje
AU - Stien, Lars Helge
AU - Braithwaite, Victoria A.
AU - Juell, Jon Erik
AU - Folkedal, Ole
AU - Nilsson, Jonatan
AU - Oppedal, Frode
AU - Fosseidengen, Jan Erik
AU - Kristiansen, Tore S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments This study has been carried out with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, specific RTD programme ‘‘Specific Support to Policies’’, SSP-2004-4-FISH—Area 8.1.B.1.3: Task 8, Project 022720 FASTFISH—on farm assessment of stress levels in fish (2006–2009). It does not necessarily reflect its views and in no way anticipates the Commission’s future policy in this area. The study has also been carried out with financial support from Research Council of Norway, Project 172487/S40 MORECARE—motivational states and coping ability as operational indicators in farmed fish. We are grateful to the staff of the Matre Aquaculture Research Station for their technical assistance. We would also like to thank two anonymous referees for valuable comments on the manuscript.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - In this study, we demonstrate how an event that is initially frightening to Atlantic salmon is turned to a positive stimulus through habituation and associative learning. The study was carried out in four commercial sized tanks (5 m3) with near industry densities (>550 fish, 16 kg m-3), using a delay conditioning procedure with an aversive flashing light as the conditioned stimulus and food reward as the unconditioned stimulus. By using video image analysis of the distribution of the fish in the tanks, the changes in behaviour from trial to trial could be documented in great detail. The current study documents the change in behaviour across the individual conditioning trials, clearly showing the step-by-step nature of the transition. The salmon needed more than 26 trials to become fully habituated to the flashing light but showed clear anticipatory behaviour already after about 19 trials. This demonstrates that the learning process is a combination of habituation and associative learning.
AB - In this study, we demonstrate how an event that is initially frightening to Atlantic salmon is turned to a positive stimulus through habituation and associative learning. The study was carried out in four commercial sized tanks (5 m3) with near industry densities (>550 fish, 16 kg m-3), using a delay conditioning procedure with an aversive flashing light as the conditioned stimulus and food reward as the unconditioned stimulus. By using video image analysis of the distribution of the fish in the tanks, the changes in behaviour from trial to trial could be documented in great detail. The current study documents the change in behaviour across the individual conditioning trials, clearly showing the step-by-step nature of the transition. The salmon needed more than 26 trials to become fully habituated to the flashing light but showed clear anticipatory behaviour already after about 19 trials. This demonstrates that the learning process is a combination of habituation and associative learning.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77957288891&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77957288891&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10499-009-9317-8
DO - 10.1007/s10499-009-9317-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77957288891
SN - 0967-6120
VL - 18
SP - 991
EP - 1001
JO - Aquaculture International
JF - Aquaculture International
IS - 6
ER -