The field of fish cognition and behaviour is now well established and recent developments reflect a shift to mechanistic, comparative and theoretical approaches compared to early work. In this review we briefly summarise recent advances in four major areas of research: spatial learning, social cognition, numerical competency and cognition, consciousness and pain. The debate on whether fish are conscious and able to feel pain is particularly topical, and we discuss recent behavioural and adaptive arguments in favour of fish pain. In this review we also propose interesting avenues of research in which fish have been given little attention in comparison with other vertebrate species.