[HN Gopher] Cuttlefish remember the what, when, and where of mea...
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       Cuttlefish remember the what, when, and where of meals, even into
       old age
        
       Author : Petiver
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2021-08-20 04:42 UTC (18 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | scotty79 wrote:
       | I've seen large cuttlefish in a very large tank in Sydney
       | oceanarium. It was a slow day so I was alone in front of that
       | tank. I played hide and seek through the glass with this cuttle
       | fish as if it was a dog. It was curious, playful and mesmerizing
       | with its weird eyes, wavy fins and color changing skin.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | abdulhaq wrote:
       | They also have a very refined palette, which is why they are
       | often found in top restaurants
        
         | ghostpepper wrote:
         | *palate
        
       | yawz wrote:
       | I would recommend Peter Godfrey-Smith's book called Other Minds
       | to appreciate further how fascinating these animals are (the book
       | talks about other cephalopods like octopus too).
        
       | alaxsxaq wrote:
       | If you live 1-2 years, as cuttlefish do, is it really that
       | amazing that their memory does not fade between birth and death?
        
         | carabiner wrote:
         | I don't remember what I ate two weeks ago, unless it's some
         | special dinner, so yeah. Every day I grapple with this awkward
         | moment between birth and death.
        
           | krisoft wrote:
           | > I don't remember what I ate two weeks ago
           | 
           | But that is not what they test the cutlefish on! They check
           | if they seem to recall foraging patterns. In case of a modern
           | human a foraging pattern would be knowing how to get to a
           | grocery store, select the items you like, perform the higly
           | abstract ritual of "paying at the cashier", get back home and
           | prepare the food.
           | 
           | Do you have problems finding your regular grocery store? Can
           | you recall your personal preferences as you are staring at
           | the items? Did it ever happen that you went home and couldnt
           | figure out how to prepare what you usually do? If you can
           | pass all of these you would probably also pass the test these
           | cuttlefish passed.
           | 
           | If you also exhibit seasonal patterns in your foraging, like
           | for example preparing a turkey once a year, or going wild for
           | pumpkin spice latte in certain seasons then you are over
           | performing really.
           | 
           | If you have ever drove past a grocery store just to get to
           | your favourite pizza place that shows that you are able to
           | delay your gratification. Heck, even if you just were able to
           | drive home from the grocery store to warm some food up shows
           | that already.
           | 
           | I understand that these all feel flippant, but we didn't
           | asked the cuttlefish what they had for breakfast. We observed
           | how they behave, how they feed themselves. Most healthy
           | humans would also pass similar observations and tests with
           | flying colours.
        
           | RappingBoomer wrote:
           | yeah, most of the details of my life, I cannot recall, even
           | recent ones...however, on the other hand, my wife remembers
           | minor mistakes I made 20 years ago
        
             | ryanianian wrote:
             | Let's be honest we all remember a stupid thing we said or
             | did 20 years ago.
             | 
             | TFA briefly mentions the hippocampus owning these kinds of
             | episodic memories in humans although cuttlefish don't have
             | hippocampuses(i?).
             | 
             | It's weird how "embarrassment trauma" memories can last so
             | long and can force that sort of weird _ooph_ sigh every
             | time we recall them.
             | 
             | Perhaps cuttlefish experience every meal as an embarrassing
             | memory. (Kidding but only kind of. The experience of
             | memories is interesting - Radio Lab did a series on it
             | iirc.)
        
             | r721 wrote:
             | Relevant HN discussion from 2019:
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21171324
        
           | ripper1138 wrote:
           | One difference is that eating is such a normal and low effort
           | activity for us that there is no point for the brain to
           | remember it. But if you were surviving in the wild, I bet
           | you'd have much better memory of meals since they would all
           | be somewhat 'special' in the sense that you are still alive!
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-20 23:00 UTC)