Writing My Report: Octopus Intelligence [E]

[DeathBug]

This just be the report I've gotta' turn in to my Marine Bio Class. Privatly, I call it:

[center][b]Octopi: Probably Smarter Than You[/b][/center]

The popular image of octopi in the human imagination has been that of a violent, gigantic monster that poses a constant threat to intrepid sailors. As with many legends, though there is some basis in reality, the majority of this image is both exaggeration and fabrication. Ignoring the fact that most octopi are about the size of the average dog (or smaller, with a few exceptions), the entire temperament presented in these tales couldn?t be further from the truth. Not only are octopi rather timid when it comes to mankind, they are also thoughtful, sensitive creatures. They have demonstrated intelligence time and again; the question is, how intelligent are they?

When one regards intelligence in animals, one has to understand that some creatures simply cannot be very intelligent for purely biological reasons. A frog, for example, does not have the physical brain necessary to demonstrate high intelligence compared to, say, an average mammal. Octopi, however, have physically large brains, for two reasons: their eyes and their arms. It takes a great degree of motor skill to control eight incredibly flexible limbs, especially considering that the arms serve not only as appendages but also as sensory organs; an octopus has an incredibly sensitive sense of touch.

In addition, the octopus also contains a sophisticated eye, capable of focusing, dilating and perceiving color. The combination of the sophisticated eye and the complicated arms calls for a relatively large amount of brain matter to process information and effectively control these organs. The presence of more brain mass allows for the combination of more neural pathways, which allows for a higher degree of thought. It is also worth noting that the octopus? eye is incredibly similar to that of human beings and primates, and that the eight arms are analogous to our manually dexterous fingers and opposable thumb.

Once it has been established that octopi is physically equipped for relatively high intelligence, their behavior must be examined, to see if the behavioral traits of intelligent animals are there. The octopus is a carnivorous predator, a group that generally displays more intelligence than herbivores; a wolf is much more cunning than the lamb it feeds upon.

However, the octopus is also a solitary creature, which is a serious impediment to intelligence in a species. Social animals tend to pass on the knowledge they have to the offspring they raise, and pack hunters usually process complex hunting strategies that must take into account not only the prey, but also the abilities of the others in their pack. It has been suggested that intelligence is spurned forward by the need to solve social dilemmas (Humphrey, 1976), and the octopus lacks the social catalyst to develop further.

The final limitation to an octopus? mental development is its short lifespan; the female octopus only lives until reproduction, or about two years. Males can live up to twice as long, but that is still only four years to develop, in isolation. As long as these factors remain in place, there is effectively a limit on how smart a single octopus can become.

So, the octopus is essentially a creature that is both biologically equipped and biologically limited when it comes to mental development. However, given its limitations, the octopus is very intelligent, easily the smartest of all invertebrates. The octopus is an incredibly pragmatic creature, using their arms, ink, funnel, and environment?s resources to their advantage whenever necessary.

Take the well-protected clam, a prey animal the octopus enjoys. If the octopus? strong arms and powerful sucker disks cannot pry the shell open, it will not hesitate to smash the stubborn mollusk against the rocks around them, or use the poison and enzymes from their beaked mouths to eat away at the muscles holding the shell together. Essentially, the octopus will do whatever is necessary to accomplish its objectives.

This pragmatism is further demonstrated when the octopus is taken out of its natural habitat and placed in a controlled lab setting, in this case, a maze. The maze walls were clear plastic, and at the end of the maze was a delicacy: a lobster. The octopus could see the lobster, but soon understood that there was a barrier between it and its lunch.

So, the octopus, knowing it cannot simply go forward, will spread its arms out in all directions, feeling the obstacle with its sensitive arms. When it feels a discrepancy in the wall, the level that opens the door in the wall, it investigates, manipulating the lever and opening the door. It repeats these steps until it reaches its goal.

However, there is a clear limit to the cephalopod?s abilities. If an octopus is placed in the same maze, it does not remember the exact maze, and its order of levels and switches. It will repeat the same investigative actions, but it cannot be fully determined if this is because the octopus remember this scenario, or is merely reacting to the scenario without prior recall. At least, it cannot be determined based merely on this experiment. The answer becomes obvious when an octopus is observed in other situations, especially interacting with humans.

Octopi tend to react to humans with a mixture of fear and curiosity, at least at first. When it determines that the humans mean it no harm, the octopus will usually feel this new creature with its arms, trying to perceive the human with its most pronounced sensory organs. (This is actually the biggest threat that octopi hold to human swimmers and divers; if the diver panics, the octopus can unintentionally cause him to drown by keeping him underwater. Octopi have been known to pull out divers? breathing masks in the process of feeling the diver.)

Once the initial contact has been made, the octopus will generally ignore the humans, provided the humans ignore the octopus. If they pursue the mollusk, it will flee, retreating to its lair or any available crevice. However, what normally happens in the process of studying the creatures is that the researchers present the octopus with a crab or lobster to win the animal?s trusts and compliance.


As time goes on, the octopus will actually approach humans, learning that treats may follow. In addition, the octopus will tolerate a great deal of, to it, useless dilly-dally on the part of the researchers, knowing the rewards that will follow.
However, within their interactions with human researchers, several octopi have shown what can be called personalities. Some octopi are naturally playful, and volunteer for interaction far easier than shy, reclusive octopi that need constant attention and reassurance to cooperate. There are even aggressive octopi that will refuse to cooperate unless rewards are constantly presented, and become belligerent towards their handlers if they are not.


Despite their inherent limitations, octopi are intelligent animals, even though their thought processes are far more alien to us than those of terrestrial mammals. Had they more longevity and a more favorable social structure, they might have had intelligence comparable to simpler primates, rather than rodents or domesticated pets.
----

Hope it was interesting reading.

[Godelsensei]

The way this was written made it almost funny. Maybe it was the clear enthusiasm for such an obscure topic.

It was definately readable, though alot of it seemed to be a product of pure common sense. (Reminds me of geography class. Pah.) I only mention that because it's a report, and I'm not sure what your teacher expects.

Anyway, this is very similar to that whole bit from Questionable Content, with Elen and her Connect-Four-playing squids.

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]Thats interesting, and an amusing and entertaining read. My one critical recommendation is to substitute something else for 'dilly-dally'. Depsite the conversational approach to your report, you should stick to professional or semi-professional vocabulary.[/size]

[James]

[color=#B0251E]I liked this, but I did have some confusion. When you talk of octopi attacking ships and stuff, you are referring to Giant Squid I presume. Do squid actually get put under the plural word of "octopi"? I thought squid often had more than eight arms, but I could be wrong. I say that because there are a few areas where this report seems to talk about squid rather than octopi.

I also saw footage of a gay octopus on Donahue once. That was interesting.[/color]

[Cambrian_Explosion]

Yes! Octopi are my favorite invertabrates (though I do like cepholopods in general because they are all so friggin COOL!!!!). And yeah, all octopi have eight arms, that's why they've got the prefix octo- (eight) in front of their names. There are horror stories of both giant octopi and giant squids.

Oh, and Deathbug, there is more evidence that octopi can learn. Someone did an experiment, where a bunch of small octopi were isolated in their own aquariums so they couldn't see each other. The octopi were given a clear, sealed jar with a crab inside. Some discovered how to open the jar and get at the prey inside, but some were stumped. Then our scientist put one octopus who learned how to open the jar next to one who couldn't figure it out (still separate aquariums, but they can see each other easily). He then put another jarred crab in with the octopus who knew how to open the jar. With a rival watching, he took it to the most distant corner he could, and proceded to open the jar. The other octopus moved around to get a good vantage point of the procedings, and watched how the other octopus opened the jar. Finally, the scientist gave the octopus who couldn't figure out how to open the jar himself, and he opened it easily. The scientist did this a few times, and results were consistent.

Saw it on PBS once, and thought I'd tell you.

[DeathBug]

Wow, replies!

Godel: I've never had to write a report for this professor before, and I never will again; so, I'm writing reports as I always do, and assuming that my audience only has basic knowledge of the concepts.

Baron: My use of the phrase "dilly-dally" was from the octopus' perspective: from its point of view, the researchers' activities are useless and just odd; I was trying to avoid a conversational tone.

James: In reference to the mythology, octopi and squid are often interchangable. For example, in the version of original "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", there was an illustration of a creatures Vernes calls a squid, but the picture is clearly an octopus.

However, my research was all involving octopi; I didn't get any information on squid.

C_E: Yeah, I know there's been further study, but that information wasn't readily availible to me in time to write the report.

Thanks for the feedback.

[James]

[color=#B0251E]As far as I know, stories of giant squid attacking ships are actually somewhat based in reality -- you may have seen the giant squid that occasionally wash up on various beaches. I believe it was only recently that one of the largest types was found; it was basically longer than a school bus. So it's a funny type of mythology that actually has some very slight link to reality (in the same way that religious mythology from various periods - aboriginal paintings for instance - has a similar link).[/color]

[Semjaza]

This was extremely interesting. I have to say my knowledge on the octopus is extremely limited, but creatures of the sea are always so bizarre that I love reading about them. I don't know how into the topic you were exactly, but it's written in such a manner that the reader is interested because the writer seems interested. Hopefully that makes sense.

[Arcadia]

[size=1]The whole paragraph about how an octopus may playfully suffocate a diver made me laugh myself silly. I've known that octopi are among the more intelligent of sea creatures but it's cool to find that they can also have personalities, too. Too bad for the females, though. Damn kids.[/size]

[DeathBug]

[quote name='Arcadia][size=1'] Too bad for the females, though. Damn kids.[/size][/quote]

Pity the females; they stay by the kids as soon as the eggs are laid, until they hatch. She doesn't eat during this time, and starves to death after the kids are hatched.

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1][quote name='Deathbug']My use of the phrase "dilly-dally" was from the octopus' perspective: from its point of view, the researchers' activities are useless and just odd; I was trying to avoid a conversational tone.[/quote] I still say that there are better words or phrases than 'dilly-dally'. Conversational mightn't have been the right word to use... but you do write in a very 'open' feeling manner. Which is fine. But the word 'dilly-dally' really stands out like a sore thumb. I'd still advocate a replacement to maintain the integrity of the report.[/size]