Bold zebrafish (danio rerio) learn faster in an associative learning task

Abstract

Animals differ in their ability to learn. One potential factor contributing to learning differences is personality types. We investigated the relationship between learning and the bold-shy continuum by comparing performance of bold and shy zebrafish in conditioned place preference (CPP) and 2 choice tasks. Bold fish learned significantly faster than the shy fish but there were no differences in their final performance. When tested in the 2 choice task, we found no clear evidence of learning, however bold fish made more initial choices than shy fish. Overall,our study suggests that bold fish tend to be faster learners when compared to shy fish. The lack of differences in the final change in behavior suggests that the learning difference is due to neophobic tendencies and resulting initial interactions with the learning stimulus.