Gravity's Rainbow

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy

--- Monica Belevan <quodlibet at surrealestate.com> wrote:
 
> It´s also worthy of mention to note the octopus is among the most
> intelligent of all animals. It provenly uses methods of basic
> reasoning, and can effectively solve problems. 

Reposting from June 99 (one up!)

   Howdy!
   > 
   > I've been saving this article for years now....
   > NY Times Friday 24 April 1992
   > "Octopuses Found to Learn From One Another"
   > 
   > WASHINGTON, April 23 (AP) - Scientists studying
   > octopuses have found
   > that the creatures learned to pick the "right" ball
   > after watching
   > other octuopuses that were trained to pick a certain
   > color ball.
   > 
   > The scientists, Drs. Graziano Fiorito and pietro
   > Scotto, were
   > interested in the creatures because they tend to
   > keep to themselves,
   > and this anti-social behavior made the scientists
   > curious about whether
   > octopuses could learn from one another. Dr. Fiorito,
   > of the Dohrn
   > Zoological Society, and Dr. Scotto, who is with the
   > University of
   > Reggio Calabria in Catanzaro Italy, published their
   > findings in
   > Friday's issue of the journal Science. The
   > scientists said they had
   > pulled their specimins of Octopus vulgaris from the
   > Bay of Naples and
   > had taught them how to chooses the "right" ball.
   > 
   > Reward and Punishment
   > 
   > A red and a white ball were suspended in an aquarium
   > on nylon sticks. 
   > Both balls were of the same size and shape. For some
   > octopuses, the
   > "right" ball was red, for others it was white.
   > 
   > The researchers used a tried and true teaching
   > method:  "When the
   > animal attacked the correct ball it was rewarded,
   > and each attack of
   > the incorrect ball was punished" the scientists
   > wrote.  The reward was
   > a piece of fish that the octopus could find by
   > wrapping at entacle
   > around the back of the ball.  The punishment was an
   > electrode hooked to
   > a 12-volt power source.
   > 
   > Alan Peters, who manages invertabrate exhibits at
   > the National Zoo in
   > Washington was not surprised that an octopus could
   > learn. "They are
   > what you might describe as intelligent," he said.
   > 
   > Once the first group was trained to attack the
   > correct ball, an
   > untrained octopus was put in a nearby tank to watch.
   > 
   > The untrained octopus watched the "teaching" octopus
   > go through the
   > paces of picking the right ball four times. 
   > Curiosity seemed to draw
   > the untrained octopus out of his house in the
   > aquarium so he could
   > watch the other one attacking a ball, the scientists
   > wrote.
   > 
   > Octopus Observe and Learn
   > 
   > "In particular, we noted that the observers followed
   > the action
   > patterns of the demonstrators with movements of the
   > head and eyes,"
   > wrote Drs. Fiorito and Scotto.
   > 
   > The 30 creatures that has watched a "teacher" attack
   > the red ball were
   > then put through 150 trials. Without fish or shock
   > therapy, they picked
   > the red ball 129 times, the researchers wrote.
   > Separately, 14 octopuses
   > who watched an octopus trained to go after the white
   > ball picked that
   > color 49 times out of 70.
   > 
   > The researchers also found that the animals learned
   > faster from each
   > other than when the scientist used food and
   > electricity to train them.
   > 
   > But Drs. Fiorito and Scotto could not explain why
   > the octopuses often
   > picked the red ball, even when that was the wrong
   > choice. One possible
   > reason, they guessed, is that an octopus just
   > prefers red.
   > 
   > ****
   > Ta all... Mark



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