The Behavior and Learning, Studies and Observation on Octopus, Research Paper Example

Understanding the behavior and learning skills in an animal like an octopus is critical for comparative cognition. Further, it is essential to note that Octopus has unique morphology that intricate behavior among many animals. Besides, the behavior for the learning of Octopus is considered to be the most complex considering its established central nervous system as compared to other invertebrates (Richter, Hochner & Kuba, 2016). Many studies have indicated that the cognition of animals has dramatically advanced for both the vertebrates and invertebrates, which in turn has created an elicited interest in conducting further studies on the matter. An encounter with an octopus Vulgaris is a different exposure whereby it provides the capability to reflect more on the need to learn the characteristics the animal has within the environment (Hochner, Shomrat, & Fiorito, 2006). When exploring animal behavior, one must attempt to determine if a behavior is learned or instinctive. A classic example of natural behavior is swimming and a learned behavior camouflaging to avoid predation. While instinctive behaviors are innate and require no experience, learned behaviors are acquired and perfected over time. However, the classification of behaviors is a challenging task because some are partly learned and partly intuitive. Animals can watch and copy behaviors from other animals, to be taught by other animals, or figure out new behaviors on their own. Octopuses are believed to be intelligent animals and can learn through any of the three outlined ways that combine learned and instinctive aspects. For example, octopuses have been observed to create rock barriers in their dens, which is a manifestation of being smart (Wells & Young, 1969). The interest of the paper is to explore the behaviors, learning, and training involving Octopus by initiating a goal on how to include the animal to adapt to new changes in utilizing their intelligence in performing various tasks.

Studies on behavior learning of Octopus has determined the capability for Octopus to have a form of communication within their environment in various measures. There are multiple ways in which such communication is initiated and needs to be understood. These consist of visual, tactile, auditory, and gustatory. Using their rich plasticity and behavior repertoire, octopuses can use kaleidoscope displays, stand tall, or spread arms to communicate emotions (Amodio & Fiorito, 2013). Moreover, it is critical to understand that the innovative behavior theory assists in predicting the cognitive abilities that can be favored among different species to exploit diverse sources of the communication process. In response to this, there is an established complex social structure as well as inhabit environments determined to have highly unpredictable resources to understand the relative stages of social development in learning. It is reported that Octopus has an exploratory and also attracted by the novel objects that can allow them to migrate either horizontally or vertically when looking for food. Besides, they can also use signals with the skin color and texture to communicate within their ecosystem. For example, fighting octopuses were observed to broadcast their intentions to other animals before they strike them (Mather, J., & Mather, D., 2004). The animal sends cues to other organisms to inform them if they should flee or not. In particular, when the Octopus turns dark and spreads, its arms stand tall and raise the body sac above its eyes is a sign of aggression. The Octopus’s ability to change its skin color enables it to produce complicated visual displays to both heterospecific and conspecific targets. For instance, the ‘passing cloud’ is a form of communication between organisms belonging to different species. Movement, posture, skin texture, and skin coloration form part of the Octopus’s process of communication. In some field observations, octopuses were observed to reach out their arms when they were passing each other as a sign of friendliness. The Octopus’s ability to vary its appearance by modulating the surface texture and varying its posture enables it to produce various communicative signals. The combination of skin texture and position (flashes of the body color and posturing) enhances social communication within the Octopus’s habitat (Wells & Young, 1969; Zarrella et al., 2015).

Zarrella et al. (2015) acknowledge the biological plasticity of the Octopus. The brain of the Octopus has about 140 million neurons making to be large and complex compared to other brains of invertebrates. Moreover, the ration of brain weight to the body weight can be compared to the vertebrates since they are involved in the long-term memory situations (Richter, Hochner & Kuba, 2016). They share some of the functional features with animals such as inset mushroom bodies as well as hippocampus.  The deficiency in the vertical lobe (VL) resulted in weakness in behavior learning such as visual discrimination (Hochner, Shomrat, & Fiorito, 2006). In particular, the vertical lobe was observed to be important in observational learning. They are compromising the vertical lobe impaired both short-term and long-term memory in observational learning. The long-term potentiation was located in the vertical lobe. The VL was not only activity independent but also robust and long-lasting synaptic potentiation (LTP), which makes them the most intelligent invertebrates. As previously noted, the Octopus has a relatively large brain that enables them to be trained on tasks that require learning and memory retention. The LTP process was observed to increase the transformation of information between the nerve cells for short and long-term storage. It was discovered that Octopus’s short and long-term memories worked parallel but dependent on each other. The LTP in the vertical lobe of the Octopus Vulgaris was tested to determine its role in learning and memory circuitry. It was discovered that LTP played a significant role in behavior learning. Also, learning was separated into short and long-term memory but is mediated by the vertical lobe (Shomrat, Zarrella, Fiorito, & Hochner, 2008). The brain has a regulatory mechanism that regulates the storage of both short and long-term information during learning, which is significant in animals learning and memory.

Social learning in octopuses is classically conceived. Observational learning is a component of social learning that is critical to understand the learning capabilities of Octopus (Amodio & Fiorito, 2013). The Octopus learns by observing its conspecifics and heterospecifics. Substantially, this is because the ability to learn and memory can readily solve discriminatory tasks. There are few cognitive abilities of Octopus which have been studied. These consist of navigation, play behavior as well as detour task used in solving in a maze. For example, octopuses learn the traits of being aggressive from other species such as sharks. This shows their ability to mimic or imitate behavior (Richter, Hochner & Kuba, 2016). Mimic octopuses pose as dangerous animals to disguise themselves and discourage other predators from preyed on. This illustration proves that octopuses are able to tell animals that a predator would not want to eat. Octopuses possess high social tolerance, which is an indicator of high diversity and plasticity (Fiorito & Scotto, 1992). Their social learning is synonymous with vertebrate spatial learning. In particular, Fiorito and Scotto (1922) observed that Octopus’s social learning took place through observation. For example, most octopus Vulgaris learned to unscrew lids off jars instinctively or through observation. In an experiment set by Fiorito, untrained Octopus Vulgaris observed pre-conditioned Octopus and were seen to implement the actions made by the conditioned octopuses. This is a clear indication that some invertebrates can learn through observation. They are surprisingly social while at the same time confrontational. The animals share a social language that binds them together in their social circles (Wells & Young, 1969). However, they are equally confrontational and cannibalistic. As previously noted, dark colors in octopuses connote aggression, while pale colors indicate friendliness. Therefore, Octopus’s social learning takes place through imitation or mimicry, which is observational learning. By observing other animals, the Octopus learns social behaviors.

Octopuses have been observed making tools from coconut shells. More importantly, they have been found to possess flexibility in their use of tools. For example, octopuses are known to collect, transport, and assemble discarded shells in the sea for use as shelter (Zarrella et al., 2015). This is a behavior that had been previously perceived as a preserve for humans. Also, they are known to collect tools and store them safely for later use. The use of tools by Octopus Vulgaris has become a benchmark for the invertebrate’s cognitive sophistication. On the aspect of numerosity, octopuses appear to possess the capacity to understand quantity. As part of the foraging behavior, the Octopus can determine the amount of prey to meet its satiation level or optimal-risk tolerance in the face of predators (Hanlon, Conroy, & Forsythe, 2007). The seizure behavior for victims showed that Octopus had a high preference for larger quantities of prey whenever the satiation level was low (Yang & Chiao, 2016). In particular, it would choose two victims over one. In other instances, it would select one prey over many if its satiation level was high. These illustrations show that the Octopus has the ability for numerical discrimination based on their appetite and quality of prey. Foraging decisions are primed on the difficulty of obtaining food vis-à-vis their satiation level (Yang & Chiao, 2016). Richter, Hochner, and Kuba (2016) illustrate how octopuses can manipulate objects to solve complex puzzles that require push and pull actions. Octopuses gain consciousness about themselves and other species around them. The mirror test for the octopus self-awareness indicates that the animal is smart and can recognize self. It has a neurological substrate that increases self-awareness. Thus, they can orient toward their images if put in front of a mirror. Besides self-awareness, the Octopus can recognize faces (Anderson, Mather, Monette, & Zimsen, 2010). It has a well-developed vision, which enables it to make learned visual discriminations while its memory allows it to remember faces. Octopuses can conditionally discriminate between context-sensitivity and potential cues acquired from the environment.

In summary, the Octopus is a very intelligent invertebrate matching the intelligence of the vertebrates. They can learn behaviors from the environment and can be trained to behave in a given manner. Their cognitive abilities make them trainable as well as keeping the memory of learned things. The Octopus’s intelligence is a manifestation of the advanced cognitive evolution of invertebrate animals. The illustrations in the paper have shown that octopus Vulgaris can acquire behavior instinctively and through learning – observational learning. By observing heterospecific and conspecific species, the Octopus can perform tasks that are assumed to be a preserve for human beings.

References

Amodio, P., & Fiorito, G. (2013). Observational and other types of learning in Octopus. In Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience (Vol. 22, pp. 293-302). Elsevier.

Anderson, R. C., Mather, J. A., Monette, M. Q., & Zimsen, S. R. (2010). Octopuses (Enteroctopus dofleini) recognize individual humans. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 13(3), 261-272.

Fiorito, G., & Scotto, P. (1992). Observational learning in Octopus vulgaris. Science, 256(5056), 545-547.

Hanlon, R. T., Conroy, L. A., & Forsythe, J. W. (2007). Mimicry and foraging behavior of two tropical sand-flat octopus species off North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 93(1), 23-38.

Hochner, B., Shomrat, T., & Fiorito, G. (2006). The octopus: a model for a comparative analysis of the evolution of learning and memory mechanisms. The Biological Bulletin, 210(3), 308-317.

Josef, N., Amodio, P., Fiorito, G., & Shashar, N. (2012). Camouflaging in a complex environment—octopuses use specific features of their surroundings for background matching. PloS one, 7(5), e37579.

Richter, J. N., Hochner, B., & Kuba, M. J. (2016). Pull or push? Octopuses solve a puzzle problem. PloS one, 11(3), e0152048.

Mather, J. A., & Mather, D. L. (2004). Apparent movement in a visual display: the ‘passing cloud’ of Octopus cyanea (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Journal of Zoology, 263(1), 89-94.

Richter, J. N., Hochner, B., & Kuba, M. J. (2016). Pull or push? Octopuses solve a puzzle problem. PloS one, 11(3), e0152048.

Shomrat, T., Zarrella, I., Fiorito, G., & Hochner, B. (2008). The octopus vertical lobe modulates short-term learning rate and uses LTP to acquire long-term memory. Current Biology, 18(5), 337-342.

Wells, M. J., & Young, J. Z. (1969). Learning at different rates of training in the octopus. Animal Behaviour, 17, 406-415.

Yang, T. I., & Chiao, C. C. (2016). Number sense and state-dependent valuation in cuttlefish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1837), 20161379.

Zarrella, I., Ponte, G., Baldascino, E., & Fiorito, G. (2015). Learning and memory in Octopus vulgaris: a case of biological plasticity. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 35, 74-79.