Smart little buggers

[Nish]

https://www.sciencealert.com/cuttlefish-can-pass-a-cognitive-test-designed-for-children?fbclid=IwAR0pOPhoaZEv9vRmkb2A-sTK_nU2Wm6jiiVFHBFqd1oqypHi4d8qVtOeoDs

This is kind of cool.

[The Inflicted]

This might be just bad memory, but I remember visiting an aquarium as a kid and seeing a tank of cuttlefish. I put my hand up to the glass and they seemed interested, and I tried making various gestures with my fingers (peace sign, "the shocker", etc.) and I could have sworn they were "signing" back to me.

[punkncat]

I worked at a reef aquaria importer years ago. We had an Octopus returned by an owner because he was an escape artist. We put him in a tank in the back which was separated from a goldfish feeder tank by about 5-6' but in line of sight. It took us a while to realize that the empty feeder tank and the wet floor was due to nightly excursions to grub from said Octopus. We only learned the truth after we set up a camera to record. The funny aspect was that we tried all manner of lids and weights to keep him in and nothing worked.

[CrowsFeast]

I worked at a reef aquaria importer years ago. We had an Octopus returned by an owner because he was an escape artist. We put him in a tank in the back which was separated from a goldfish feeder tank by about 5-6' but in line of sight. It took us a while to realize that the empty feeder tank and the wet floor was due to nightly excursions to grub from said Octopus. We only learned the truth after we set up a camera to record. The funny aspect was that we tried all manner of lids and weights to keep him in and nothing worked.

The only solid part of an octopus is their beak. if they can fit their beak through an opening then they can slip their whole body through.

[TheYoda]

Sounds very similar to a video I saw of some lab (?) studying fish that had the same thing happen. They presumed it was the octopus, but couldn’t confirm until they caught it all on video. Pretty amazing.

Recently watched this Netflix movie, My Octopus Teacher, about a documentary filmmaker spending a year hanging out with an octopus. Worth checking out.

[flyweightnate]

That's a really cool way to test animal intelligence.

That said, the original marshmallow test has been reviewed, and it seems the results are not as clear cut as the first hypothesis suggested. It's really an interesting look at the history of psychology, and how better experimental controls and methods are addressing a reproducibility crisis, and how the test showed far more than just which children were patient.

There's a deep rabbit hole for anyone interested in checking it out!