Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40396925›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2025

Do goldfish like to be informed?

Victor Ajuwon, Tiago Monteiro, Mark E Walton, Alex Kacelnik

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Do goldfish like to be informed?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  5. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Victor AjuwonDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-5116-641X
Tiago MonteiroDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-2836-8961
Mark E WaltonDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.
Alex KacelnikDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.

Funding

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BB/M011224/1Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Like humans, several mammalian and avian species prefer foretold over unsignalled future events, even if the information is costly and confers no direct benefit. It is unclear whether this is an epiphenomenon of basic associative learning mechanisms, or whether these preferences reflect a derived form of information-seeking that is reminiscent of human curiosity. We investigate whether a fish that shares basic reinforcement learning mechanisms with birds and mammals also shows such a preference, with the aim of elucidating whether widely shared conditioning processes are sufficient to explain paradoxical preferences resulting in unusable information. Goldfish (

Indexed as

Association LearningChoice BehaviorGoldfishAnimalsReinforcement, PsychologyRewardgoldfishinformation-seekingnon-instrumental informationobserving responseparadoxical choicesuboptimal choice

Identifiers

PMID40396925
PMCPMC12094186

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.