Table 1.
Summary of behavioral tests commonly used to measure each dimension of fish personality. Note that some tests can measure more than one dimension
| Dimension | Behavioral tests | Example of operational definition | Neurotransmitter system involved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shyness-boldness (Bold) | Responses to predators | Avoidance or inspection of the predator | Serotonin |
| Time spent foraging under risk | |||
| Response to threatening stimuli | Frequency of freezing | ||
| Latency to feed after the introduction of stimulus | |||
| Exploration-avoidance (ExpAv) | Emergence test | Latency to emerge from a refuge | Serotonin, dopamine, histamine, glucocorticoids |
| Novel object test | Latency to approach a novel object | ||
| Proportion of time spent in contact with the object | |||
| Light/dark test | Proportion of time spent in the non-preferred compartment (e.g., black in adult zebrafish) | ||
| Novel tank test | Proportion of time spent in the bottom third of the tank | ||
| Activity (Act) | Novel tank test | Distance covered | |
| Swimming speed | |||
| Squares crossed | |||
| Other tests (Virtually every behavioral test in other dimensions can also incorporate activity measures) | Distance covered | ||
| Swimming speed | |||
| Squares crossed | |||
| Sociability (Soc) | Social preference test | Time spent near conspecific | Sexual steroids, nonapeptides, dopamine |
| Social novelty test | Time spent near novel conspecific | ||
| Shoaling | Inter-fish distance | ||
| Conditional approach | Time spent inspecting predator when conspecific is present | ||
| Aggressiveness (Agr) | Mirror test | Aggressive display or contact | Serotonin, dopamine, histamine |
| Aggressive encounters | Aggressive display or contact |