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Fixed Action Patterns

Fixed Action Patterns

A fixed action pattern (FAP) is a specific, hard-wired sequence of behaviors that occurs in response to an external stimulus, called a sign stimulus. The behavior is “fixed” because it is essentially unchangeable—proceeding similarly across individuals of a species every time it occurs.

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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Long-term Behavioral Tracking of Freely Swimming Weakly Electric Fish

Long-term Behavioral Tracking of Freely Swimming Weakly Electric Fish

Published on: March 6, 2014

Shape learning and discrimination in reef fish.

U E Siebeck¹, L Litherland, G M Wallis

¹ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science, Sensory Neurobiology Group, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia. u.siebeck@uq.edu.au

The Journal of Experimental Biology

|June 16, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Coral reef fish can quickly learn arbitrary visual cues linked to food. These damselfish also exhibit anticipatory behavior, predicting food availability in new locations and times.

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Area of Science:

Marine Biology
Animal Behavior
Sensory Ecology

Background:

Coral reef fish navigate complex visual environments, requiring accurate identification of stimuli like predators and prey for survival.
Understanding fish cognitive abilities, particularly their capacity for stimulus discrimination and learning, is crucial for ecological studies.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if the visual discrimination abilities of reef fish are limited to ecologically relevant stimuli or are more adaptable.
To assess the learning and cognitive flexibility of the damselfish species, Pomacentrus amboinensis.

Main Methods:

Trained freshly captured Pomacentrus amboinensis to associate an arbitrary visual stimulus with a food reward.
Tested discrimination between the reward stimulus and a physically matched distractor.
Conducted experiments where food reward was spatially and temporally separated from the visual cue to eliminate olfactory cues.

Main Results:

Fish demonstrated rapid learning, associating arbitrary visual stimuli with food rewards within days.
Successfully discriminated between reward and distractor stimuli based on shape.
Exhibited anticipatory behavior (goal tracking), indicating an ability to predict food availability at different times and locations.

Conclusions:

Freshly caught reef fish possess the ability to quickly learn and discriminate novel visual stimuli based on shape.
These fish can interpret visual cues as predictors of future food availability, even when cues are separated in space and time.
The findings suggest a higher degree of cognitive adaptability in reef fish than previously assumed.