Cognitive research can benefit from future fish studies in three ways: first, as fish are highly variable in their ecology, they can be used to determine the specific ecological factors that select for
the evolution of specific cognitive abilities. Second, for the same reason they can be used to investigate the link between cognitive abilities and the enlargement of specific brain areas. Third, decision rules used by fish could be used as ‘null-hypotheses’ for primatologists looking at how monkeys might make their decisions.
Bshary et al., 2002. Fish cognition: a primate’s eye view. Animal Cognition 5 (1): 1-13
