Predator recognition by small fishes can be acquired when chemical alarm cues released from damaged skin (by a predator attack) are paired with a novel stimulus, such as the appearance or odor of a predator. Once learned, fish can extend recognition of risk by generalizing to associate risk with additional stimuli that are similar to the conditioned novel stimulus. Here, we trained zebrafish to associate a novel auditory stimulus with predation risk, and then tested to see if they generalize risk to all sound stimuli or whether the conditioned response is limited to the sound frequency of the conditioning stimulus. We found that zebrafish Danio rerio readily associated risk of predation with Tone 1 (285 Hz), as evidenced by reduction in activity, increased time spent near the substratum and increased shelter use, but fish conditioned to fear Tone 1 completely ignored presentation of a second tone of 762 Hz. These data suggest that generalization does not occur as easily for auditory cues as they do for olfactory and visual cues, perhaps due to differences in the properties of sensory biology or the cognitive mechanisms that process information in different sensory modalities.

当从受损皮肤释放的化学警报提示（通过掠食者袭击）与新颖的刺激因素（例如掠食者的外观或气味）配对时，就可以获得小鱼对掠食者的识别。一旦学会了，鱼就可以通过将风险与类似于条件新刺激的其他刺激相关联来扩展对风险的识别。在这里，我们训练斑马鱼将新的听觉刺激与掠食风险相关联，然后进行测试，以查看它们是否将所有声音刺激的风险概括化，或者条件反应是否仅限于条件刺激的声频。我们发现斑马鱼Danio rerio活动减少，在基底层附近花费的时间增加和庇护所使用的增加证明，与音调1（285 Hz）的掠食风险容易相关，但是鱼类因担心音调1而完全忽略了第二个762 Hz音调的表现。这些数据表明，对于听觉提示而言，泛化并不像在嗅觉和视觉提示中那样容易发生，这可能是由于感觉生物学特性或在不同感觉方式下处理信息的认知机制不同所致。