We don't understand how Octopi think...

[n2doc]

(I didn't like the title and the real point of the article is that they think differently than we do)

12:32 12 March 2010 by Shanta Barley

Octopuses make for discerning TV viewers: it seems they prefer high-definition to traditional cathode ray images (CRT). What's more, the first study using video to trick octopuses, finds that they may be the Jekyll and Hydes of the oceans: aggressive one day, shrinking violets the next.

"People have been trying for over a decade to get proper behavioural responses from octopuses and other cephalopods using videos," says Roger Hanlon, an octopus researcher at the Marine Resources Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. "But this is the first time anyone has managed it."

Gloomy octopuses (Octopus tetricus) reacted to films shown on liquid crystal high definition television (HDTV) as if they were seeing the real thing, according to a new study by Renata Pronk at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues. "They lunge forwards to attack crabs and back off from other octopuses, much as they do in the wild," says Hanlon.

Surprisingly, an octopus that was bold, aggressive and exploratory on one day was just as likely to be shy, submissive and stationary the next. "This suggests that the gloomy octopus does not have personality," writes Pronk in the new study.

more

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18640-hdtv-reveals-brainy-octopus-has-no-personality.html

[Brickbat]

1. I don't understand how "bold and exploratory" on one day and "shy and submissive" on the next day

means that the octopus doesn't have a personality.

[villager]

2. it might suggest they have moods, actually...

n/t

[Brickbat]

3. Right, that's what I was thinking. And "moods," to me, suggests "personality."

[MUAD_DIB]

5. Moods like: Stop making me watch lousy TV and get me some tasty crab!

[Brickbat]

6. Haaa! Totally.

"WTF is this two-dimensional crab shit? Where the hell is my food? DON'T MAKE ME UNSCREW THE PLUG OF THE NEXT TANK OVER!"

[MUAD_DIB]

4. That kind of behavior could describe humanity as well.

[kestrel91316]

9. When I was in vet school they tried to teach us that dogs and cats don't

have emotions. The whole class snickered and rolled their eyes.

Of course, this was nearly 30 years ago. Maybe the research dudes are a bit more enlightened now.

Anybody who has ever allowed one cat on their lap while another had to sit off to the side knows that they can experience jealousy at the very least. Those narrowed eyes.......

[TheMadMonk]

7. We may not understand how they think. But we know they do it very well.

Screw top jars are no barrier to them.
One learned to use it's siphon to shatter the hot glass of a bright light that anoyed it.
Some species disguise themselves as flounder.
Others carry coconut shells around for defence.

[ejbrush]

8. I, for one, welcome our new mollusk overlords.

n/t