Whether it's Dory having alzheimer's or having a brain the size of a goldfish, fish are tend to be very simple-minded creatures. Even though fish diverged from land vertebrates 450 million years ago, both have developed similar vision to hunt, escape predators, and avoid collisions. Researchers have hypothesized that we see the same motion illusions as a result of convergent evolution, where organisms not closely related independently evolved similar traits as a resuly of having to adapt to similar environments.
What about attention span? One particular report found that the human attention span is down from 12 seconds in the tear 2000 to 8 seconds today. Our use of the internet and mobile devices is theorized to play a role, but either way goldfish have a 9 second attention span, trumping that of a human. When it comes to forgetfulness, a study using African cichlids gave fish food reward in a particular zone of an aquarium for three days in a row. Then the fish were given a 12 day rest period before being reintroduced into the aquarium. Using motion tracking software, the cichlids showed a distinct preference to the area of the aqarium where they had previously received a reward.
Studies have even shown goldfish can remember things for at least 3 months, distinguishing between shapes, colours, sounds, and even navigating mazes. On top of this, goldfish can recognize their owners. So ultimately, fish have been shown to have quite good memories. After all, they need to remember prey types, avoid predators and even avoid our hooks after being caught in the past. When it comes to pain, we're actually quite different than fish. When you injure yourself receptors in your body send signals to the neocortex where the sensation of pain is processed. But many fish lack nociceptors and all fish lack a neocortex, so pain isn't experienced in the same way.
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