Graduate School of Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus, Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan.
Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan,
Zoolog Sci. 2021 Oct;38(5):383-396. doi: 10.2108/zs210034.
Although various recognizing abilities have been revealed for octopuses, they predominantly deal with only a few species. Therefore, cognition diversity among other octopus species that have been overlooked needs to be investigated. We investigated whether plain-body octopus can learn a symbolic stimulus, for the reason that this octopus is abundant around Okinawa Island with a complex coral community landscape. Attention was paid to whether an octopus can learn a stimulus based solely on visual information without previous experience of learning it tactilely as well as visually. Furthermore, we examined whether different sensory inputs affect learning in octopuses. First, we tested whether octopuses can be conditioned to three different stimuli (object, picture, and video of a white cross). Octopuses that were presented an object or a picture could learn to touch them. However, octopuses that were presented a video could not learn to touch the stimulus. Second, we showed a video to octopuses that had already learned about an object or a picture to investigate whether the octopuses, having experienced a target using visual and tactile senses, can recognize a video of the target based solely on visual information. Octopuses could learn to touch the video. When a conditioned stimulus and a novel stimulus were simultaneously presented on a computer screen, an octopus that had learned an object more often selected the conditioned stimulus when compared with an octopus that had experienced only a picture. These findings suggest that octopuses use multisensory information to recognize a specific object.
尽管章鱼已经表现出了各种识别能力，但它们主要只针对少数几种物种。因此，需要研究其他被忽视的章鱼物种的认知多样性。我们之所以研究普通章鱼是否能够学习一种符号刺激，是因为这种章鱼在冲绳岛周围大量存在，而且那里有复杂的珊瑚群落景观。我们关注的是章鱼是否可以仅基于视觉信息而无需以前的触觉和视觉学习经验来学习刺激。此外，我们还研究了不同的感官输入是否会影响章鱼的学习能力。首先，我们测试了章鱼是否可以对三种不同的刺激（物体、图片和白色十字的视频）进行条件反射。呈现物体或图片的章鱼可以学会触摸它们。但是，呈现视频的章鱼无法学习触摸刺激。其次，我们向已经了解物体或图片的章鱼展示了视频，以调查章鱼是否可以在使用视觉和触觉感官体验目标之后，仅基于视觉信息识别目标的视频。章鱼可以学会触摸视频。当在计算机屏幕上同时呈现条件刺激和新刺激时，与仅经历过图片的章鱼相比，已经学习过物体的章鱼更经常选择条件刺激。这些发现表明，章鱼使用多感官信息来识别特定的物体。
