Dartmouth study: octopuses learn to use mirrors to find hidden food
Octopuses can learn to use mirrors: Dartmouth researchers trained three California two-spot octopuses to find food hidden behind them using only its mirror reflection, succeeding about 73% of the time after training. The skill was previously seen only in vertebrates. Source: Curr
A cognitive ability long thought to be limited to mammals and birds has now been demonstrated in an invertebrate. Researchers at Dartmouth found that octopuses can learn to use mirrors to locate food hidden from direct view, according to a study published in Current Biology. The team trained three California two-spot octopuses in Dartmouth's Octopus Lab. The animals saw a live crab in a glass jar reflected in a mirror. To reach it, they had to infer where the jar actually stood behind them and make a 90-degree turn around a corner. After training, the octopuses correctly identified the food's location about 73% of the time. The researchers say this shows the animals used the mirror as a tool rather than simply reacting to a reflection, and suggests octopuses may possess internal spatial representations. Sources: Dartmouth, Current Biology, ScienceDaily.