Gravity's Rainbow

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 in his recommendable "wild minds. what animals really think" (nyc 2000: henry 
 holt, chapter 6), marc d. hauser, too, says that the octopus is able to learn 
 socially. (in the german edition, "wilde intelligenz", it's page 162). pretty 
 useful book, by the way ---

greetings, kai  



Mark Wright AIA schrieb:

> 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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