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Response to Video and Computer-animated Images by the Tiger Barb, Puntius tetrazona

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Abstract

Video playback has become an important tool for testing certain questions about animal visual perception. While a few studies have compared the response of test subjects to live and video stimuli, it is generally assumed a priori that the animals will respond to the video image as if it were ‘real’. Since video devices are tuned to the spectral sensitivities and flicker fusion frequencies of the human eye and brain, it is important to conduct preliminary tests to compare the response of test subjects between live and video images. Here we compare schooling behavior of tiger barbs, Puntius tetrazona, when presented with a school of live fish, an analog video school of fish and a video of a computer-animated school of fish. Test subjects did not show a significantly different schooling behavior response to any of these stimuli. Additionally, when given the choice of schooling with a conspecific versus a heterospecific, tiger barbs schooled significantly more often with the conspecifics for all three stimulus formats. This study provides evidence that tiger barbs do not choose to discriminate between live and video models of fish and that this technique can be used to test future questions concerning visual perception for this species.

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  1. Department of Biology, Alma College, Alma, MI, 48801, U.S.A. (e-mail

    David L. Clark & Kurt R. Stephenson

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  1. David L. Clark
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Clark, D.L., Stephenson, K.R. Response to Video and Computer-animated Images by the Tiger Barb, Puntius tetrazona. Environmental Biology of Fishes 56, 317–324 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007549721631

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