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Visual Central Processes in Fish Behavior

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Advances in Vertebrate Neuroethology

Part of the book series: NATO Advanced Science Institutes Series ((NSSA,volume 56))

Abstract

It has been of particular interest to me to participate in the conference on Vertebrate Neuroethology held in Germany, and organized by Professor Dr. J.-P. Ewert at the University of Kassel. The reasons for this lie in the long and unique tradition of research by German biologists into recognition processes, in particular as they concerned the Gestalt properties of stimuli. First put forward by Ehrenfels in “Uber Gestaltqualitäten” published in 1890, these ideas were extended by Westheimer, Kofka and Koehler (Thorpe and Hall-Craggs, 1976), and illustrated some of the ways in which the effective characteristics of stimuli might be isolated. The German School was also one of the first to suggest that a general understanding of visual recognition might be gained through a study of discrimination learning in fishes — a visually capable but primitive group of vertebrates. As a result a list of distinguished authors publishing in German chose to work with fishes. In particular I would like to mention von Frisch, Hamburger, Hager, Horio, Fisher, Meesters, Herter and Saxena, who published work between 1912 and 1966. The 15 species that they studied collectively, included both cultivated and wild species, and one of them was the freshwater perch, which has been the prime subject of our researches.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    D. M. Guthrie

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  1. D. M. Guthrie
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kassel, Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany

    Jörg-Peter Ewert

  2. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Robert R. Capranica

  3. Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

    David J. Ingle

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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York

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Guthrie, D.M. (1983). Visual Central Processes in Fish Behavior. In: Ewert, JP., Capranica, R.R., Ingle, D.J. (eds) Advances in Vertebrate Neuroethology. NATO Advanced Science Institutes Series, vol 56. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4412-4_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4412-4_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4414-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4412-4

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