Question

A researcher had goldfish in a tank illuminated in white light. She wanted to test their visual perception. Initially, she presented the fish with two disks inside the tank. One disk was a dull blue, and the other was gray. During these training periods, the blue disk always had food attached to it so that they would learn to choose that disk. After the fish successfully chose the blue disk 10 times in a row, she began her experiment. For the experiment, she presented the fish with the same choice of disks, but neither disk had food attached. She ran these trials under white light and yellow light. When the fish were given the choice under white light, they almost always chose the blue disk. However, when they were given the choice under yellow light, they chose randomly. What most likely explains these results?

Answer 1

The goldfish trained to select a blue disk associated with food under white light chose randomly under yellow light possibly because the change in lighting affected their ability to distinguish colors, disrupting their learned behavior.

Step-by-step explanation:

The most likely explanation for why goldfish chose the blue disk under white light but made random choices under yellow light pertains to visual perception and the impact of different light conditions on color visibility. Under white light, which includes the full spectrum of visible wavelengths, the fish could easily distinguish between the blue and gray disks due to their prior conditioning to associate the blue disk with food. However, under yellow light, which could potentially alter or wash out the blue colouration, the fish may have found it more difficult to differentiate the two disks, leading to random choices since neither contained food to guide their decision.