How sticklebacks learn to avoid dangerous feeding patches.

Three-spined sticklebacks from sites with a high and a low predation risk were subjected to a passive avoidance test using a simulated attack from an overhead predator to provide negative reinforcement. All the subjects learned to avoid a feeding patch that had been strongly preferred when they received a simulated predatory attack whenever they entered this patch. The fish varied in the way in which they learned this task, in how quickly they did so and in the cues used to discriminate between the safe and the dangerous feeding patch. Some of this variation is related to the predation risk of their site of origin.