Finding Nemo character Dory is not representative of her kind, according to a new study that proves fish are more intelligent than previously thought.
The popular Disney film depicts Dory as a typical fish, forgetting her surroundings and circumstances almost instantly due to a "three-second memory".
That image could be a thing of the past thanks to scientists who have uncovered the first evidence that fish are able to process multiple objects at once.
Researchers say this proves fish are cleverer than their reputation and could pave the way for medical advances, assisting stroke patients or those with attention deficit disorders.
The University of Bath and Queen Mary University of London study is the first to identify parallel visual search, the ability to pick out one item in many, in zebrafish.
Until this point, parallel visual search had only been identified in primates, rats and pigeons and scientists assumed fish did not possess it.
It was believed that, without the frontal part of the brain in the neocortex, fish would have to examine each object individually rather than a whole scene together.
In the study, 11 adult zebrafish were presented with different coloured circles on a computer monitor over a six-day period to test their visual processing abilities.
The zebrafish were taught to associate food with a red disc and - to the delight of researchers - managed to quickly pick it out from a pile of other distracting discs. Dr Michael Proulx, of the University of Bath's Department of Psychology, said: "Although vision seems simple and quick, it involves a lot of computational power to figure out where things are in a crowded environment.
"It is incredible to discover that the zebrafish brain, with its small size and simple structure, can seemingly find a target visually without getting slower.
"No matter how many items we added to the scene to distract the fish, they had no problem responding at the same speed every time.
"The zebrafish is an excellent model organism to study behavioural genetics and neurobiology thanks to its smaller brain and transparent skin.
"Now that we have discovered their mental sophistication, there is a great opportunity to discover the neural code and genetics of how humans pay attention, and apply those findings to treatments for those with ADHD or strokes."
The research adds to growing knowledge about the intelligence of fish, which shows they are capable of much more than previously thought.
Other studies have found that fish are able to pick the larger of two groups of objects, count up to at least four and have comparatively lengthy memories.
Co-author Dr Matthew Parker, from Queen Mary University of London, added: "Fish don't deserve their reputation as the stupid branch of the animal family tree, the more research we do the more we find out that they are capable of quite complex learning and problem solving.
"This could be because being part of a shoal requires complicated interactions with their environments and quick processing of large amounts of information.
"Zebrafish are genetically surprisingly similar to humans and are incredibly useful to our studies of how genes influence addiction and psychiatric diseases, among other things."
Visual search involves an active scan of an environment to look for just one object or feature, for example identifying Where's Wally?.
Benefits include finding a mate, spotting a predator or searching for prey in the animal kingdom, or picking out an object on a supermarket shelf and looking for friends in humans.
By uncovering the similarities between fish and humans in how they process information, scientists hope the study will open up further possibilities for zebrafish research.
:: The paper, Parallel Mechanisms For Visual Search In Zebrafish, is published in journal PLOS ONE.