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Science 24 April 1992:
Vol. 256. no. 5056, pp. 545 - 547
DOI: 10.1126/science.256.5056.545
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Articles

Observational Learning in Octopus vulgaris

Graziano Fiorito 1 and Pietro Scotto 2

1 Laboratorio di Neurobiologia, Stazione Zoologica A. Dohm di Napoli, 1-80121 Napoli, Italy
2 Cattedra di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Reggio Calabria, 1-88100 Catanzaro, Italy

Untrained Octopus vulgaris (observers) were allowed to watch conditioned Octopus(demonstrators) perform the task of selecting one of two objects that were presented simultaneously and differed only in color. After being placed in isolation, the observers, in a similar test, consistently selected the same object as did the demonstrators. This learning by observation occurred irrespective of the object chosen by the demonstrators as the positive choice and was more rapid than the learning that occurred during the conditioning of animals. The task was performed correctly without significant errors and further conditioning for 5 days. These results show that observational learning can occur in invertebrates.


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