The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality

Temporality is one of the criteria that Birch has advanced for areas of cognitive ability that may underlie animal sentience. An ability to integrate and use information across time must be more than simply learning pieces of information and retrieving them. This paper looks at such wider use of inf...

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Main Author: Jennifer Mather
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-05-01
Series:NeuroSci
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4087/3/2/18
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author Jennifer Mather
author_facet Jennifer Mather
author_sort Jennifer Mather
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description Temporality is one of the criteria that Birch has advanced for areas of cognitive ability that may underlie animal sentience. An ability to integrate and use information across time must be more than simply learning pieces of information and retrieving them. This paper looks at such wider use of information by octopuses across time. It evaluates accumulation of information about one’s place in space, as used across immediate egocentric localization by cuttlefish and medium distance navigation in octopuses. Information about useful items in the environment can be incorporated for future use by octopuses, including for shelter in antipredator situations. Finding prey is not random but can be predicted by environmental cues, especially by cuttlefish about future contingencies. Finally, the paper examines unlimited associative learning and constraints on learning, and the ability of cephalopods to explore and seek out information, even by play, for future use.
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spelling doaj.art-b914f8d9068f484b828f076c7675b5cd2023-11-23T18:18:57ZengMDPI AGNeuroSci2673-40872022-05-013224526110.3390/neurosci3020018The Case for Octopus Consciousness: TemporalityJennifer Mather0Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, CanadaTemporality is one of the criteria that Birch has advanced for areas of cognitive ability that may underlie animal sentience. An ability to integrate and use information across time must be more than simply learning pieces of information and retrieving them. This paper looks at such wider use of information by octopuses across time. It evaluates accumulation of information about one’s place in space, as used across immediate egocentric localization by cuttlefish and medium distance navigation in octopuses. Information about useful items in the environment can be incorporated for future use by octopuses, including for shelter in antipredator situations. Finding prey is not random but can be predicted by environmental cues, especially by cuttlefish about future contingencies. Finally, the paper examines unlimited associative learning and constraints on learning, and the ability of cephalopods to explore and seek out information, even by play, for future use.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4087/3/2/18consciousnesstemporalityoctopusescephalopods
spellingShingle Jennifer Mather
The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality
NeuroSci
consciousness
temporality
octopuses
cephalopods
title The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality
title_full The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality
title_fullStr The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality
title_full_unstemmed The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality
title_short The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality
title_sort case for octopus consciousness temporality
topic consciousness
temporality
octopuses
cephalopods
url https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4087/3/2/18
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