Many people believe that goldfish only have a seven-second memory(记忆), but Roy Stokes, a 15-year-old schoolboy from Australia Science and Mathematics School has just finished an experiment to tell us that it is not true. He shows everybody that goldfish are smarter than we think.
"I don't believe that they have a seven-second memory because animals need their memories, so they can know where the food is," he said.
He did the experiment in a small tank of goldfish. "I decided to get a red logo(标识)and just feed them next to the logo. Every day I put it in and dropped food around it," he said.
"At first they were a bit afraid of it, but by the end of the three weeks, they were actually almost coming before I put the food in."
After leaving the goldfish alone for a week, Roy put the red logo in the tank again.
"They remembered perfectly well," he said. "They actually had a time faster than the three feeds before I left."
The goldfish showed that they not only could store information, but also had the ability to get it back at a later date.
Colum Brown, a researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, has studied fish behavior(行为)for more than ten years. He says his studies show that fish are intelligent and they know how to avoid enemies and catch food like any other animal. As an experienced expert, Colum thinks that Roy's experiment is really good.
①put the logo back into the tank
②feed the goldfish next to the logo
③leave the goldfish alone for a week
④take out the logo
⑤put a red logo into the tank
⑥find a tank of goldfish