Contrasting activity patterns of two related octopus species, Octopus macropus and Octopus vulgaris

Octopus macropus and Octopus vulgaris have overlapping habitats and are exposed to similar temporal changes. Whereas the former species is described as nocturnal in the field, there are conflicting reports about the activity time of the latter one. To compare activity patterns, the authors tested both species in the laboratory. Octopuses were exposed to a light-dark cycle and held under constant dim light for 7 days each. O. macropus showed nocturnal and light-cued activity. According to casual observations, O. vulgaris started out nocturnal but had switched to mostly diurnal when the experiment began. Individual variation of its activity was found. The different activity patterns of O. macropus and O. vulgaris might reflect their lifestyles, the latter species being more generalist.     

Appetitive conditioning in Octopus cyanea

The performance of Octopus cyanea was studied in 3 appetitive conditioning situations. In Experiment 1, 2 groups were trained in a runway; a large reward produced faster acquisition when reinforcement was consistent and better subsequent performance on a partial schedule than did a small reward. In Experiment 2, activity in the vicinity of a feeder was measured, and in Experiment 3, latency and probability of response were measured in an automated version of a traditional conditioned attack situation (Boycott & Young, 1950). There was evidence of acquisition with continuous reinforcement in both experiments but in neither with partial reinforcement. All of the results can be understood in terms of growth and decline in the strength of stimulus-reinforcer associations with reinforcement and nonreinforcement.     

The Octopus Approach in Time Management: Polychronicity and Creativity

The current study examined the associations among polychronicity, creativity and perceived time pressure in a military context. Polychronicity refers to an individual’s preference for working on many tasks simultaneously as opposed to 1 at a time. As hypothesized, polychronicity was negatively related to creativity. In addition, perceived time pressure moderated this relationship. Specifically, polychronic individuals exhibited less creativity when their perceived time pressure was high. The results underscore that, although today’s work environment encourages polychronic approach, it, when reinforced with perceived high time pressure, runs the risk of reducing creativity, which is a critical driver for the survival of organizations.     

Repeated reversal of training in Octopus

Octopuses were trained by successive presentations to discriminate between two figures by means of a combination of food rewards and electric shocks. This was followed by a series of up to nine daily sets of trials in which reward and punishment were systematically reversed on alternate days. It was found that performance became progressively less accurate with successive reversals until it reached a random level; this appeared largely due to a continual fall in the total number of attacks at the figures. At the same time, such attacks as were made were mainly at the positive figures and there was evidence that performance as judged by this criterion became more accurate during each day and perhaps progressively more accurate on successive days. Octopuses lacking the vertical lobe showed a fall in the total number of attacks but did not show this improvement within each day or over successive days. A theoretical interpretation of the results is put forward.     

The visual discrimination of shape by Octopus: The effects of stimulus size

Octopuses were trained in a successive situation to discriminate between vertical and horizontal rectangles: Group S was trained with rectangles of side length 5 × 1 cm., Group M with 10 × 2 cm. rectangles, and Group L with 20 × 4 cm. rectangles. The larger the shapes used, the more readily were they discriminated, both in terms of speed of learning and of the asymptote of performance. After training, each group was given transfer tests with the two pairs of rectangles not used in training and with two further pairs of 2.5 × 0.5 cm. and 40 × 8 cm. The results can be summarized in three generalizations: (1) When the size of a shape is changed, performance is worse than on the original training shape. (2) The bigger the change in proportionate size, the less transfer is shown. (3) For corresponding changes of proportionate size, there is better transfer to larger shapes than to smaller. These generalizations are supported by data from earlier experiments on the question of transfer to different sized shapes: some of these data were reworked and are presented in detail here. The theoretical implications of the results are discussed.     

Employment as a Poverty Trap

Using an experiment conducted with 384 young Israelis, the authors find that if young people are actually working as unskilled workers, the status quo bias increases the premium that they require for giving up their jobs and seeking more education. This excess premium may make some individuals choose to remain employed as unskilled workers rather than pursue higher education. Such a decision may trap them in a life of poverty. The authors maintain that their results prompt a reexamination of the widely held belief that early employment is an advantage for young people.     

Early temperamental traits in an octopus (Octopus bimaculoides)

During their 3rd week of life, 73 Octopus bimaculoides were observed to test whether discrete behaviors could be grouped reliably to reflect dimensions of temperament. Frequencies of behaviors during Week 3 were subjected to principal-components analysis (PCA), resulting in 4 components (active engagement, arousal/readiness, aggression, and avoidance/disinterest) that explain 53% of the variance. Levels of temperamental traits were then evaluated for 37 octopuses using composite scores at 3 time points across the first 9 weeks of life. Profile analysis revealed significant change for the testing group as a whole in trait expression levels from Week 3 to Week 6. Results also suggest a significant effect of relatedness on developing temperamental profiles of octopuses. Discussion focuses on how results apply to the life history of O. bimaculoides and what temperament can reveal about adaptive individuality in a protostome.     

The role of stimulus preexposure in problem solving by Octopus vulgaris

Octopus vulgaris is able to open transparent glass jars closed with plastic plugs and containing live crabs. The decrease in performance times for removing the plug and seizing the prey with increasing experience of the task has been taken to indicate learning. However, octopuses’ attack behaviors are typically slow and variable in novel environmental situations. In this study the role of preexposure to selected features of the problem-solving context was investigated. Although octopuses failed to benefit from greater familiarity with the training context or with selected elements of the task of solving the jar problem, the methodological strategies used are instructive in potentially clarifying the role of complex problem-solving behaviors in this species including stimulus preexposure and social learning. Received: 27 April 1998 / Accepted after revision: 24 July 1998     

The Honey Trap: the social and cognitive adequacy of language in educational contexts

ABSTRACT The attack on bidialectal approaches to the teaching of writing mounted by John Honey in The Language Trap is examined and critically discussed. It is argued that Honey confuses the issues of the social and the cognitive adequacy of a particular variety of language. In particular, his critique of bidialectalism, in so far as it is based on a version of verbal deficit theory and/or cognitive relativism, is misconceived. There are valid criticisms to be made of the bidialectal approach, but they centre on the social rather than the cognitive adequacy of different varieties of language. When the critique is formulated in this way, it is more enlightening and less misleading.     

The Solicitation of the Trap: On Transcendence and Transcendental Materialism in Advanced Consumer-Capitalism

This article argues that a transcendental materialist conception of subjectivity can move us beyond the orthodox idealist theories that dominate progressive thought in advanced consumer-capitalism. This position can shed new light on current forms of subjectivity that seem to prefer life in consumer culture’s surrogate social world rather than active participation in cultural and political resistance and transformation, which requires far more than simply ‘transcending the norm’. The rebirth of creative political subjectivity is impossible unless the subject is prepared to risk a traumatic encounter with the Real, the fundamental indeterminacy that exists not in the ideal-symbolic but the material realm, and prepared to reject liberal-postmodernist identity politics to participate in the construction of a coherent alternative ideology.     

Problem solving ability of Octopus vulgaris Lamarck (Mollusca, Cephalopoda)

Experiments presented in this study show that Octopus vulgaris Lamarck is able to open transparent glass jars closed with a plastic plug and containing a live crab (Carcinus mediterraneus). The animals remove the plus (Operandum: O) and seize the crab (Predation :P) in one single attack. The number of unsuccessful attacks appears to decrease over a series of trials (p less than .01); during the same period exploration time remains unchanged. There is a statistically significant increase in performance over trials for O (p less than .01) and P (p less than .05) mean times analyzed by single factor ANOVA, suggesting that the learning process is accomplished either by stimulus-response association or by trial and error. We propose that Octopus vulgaris is capable of learning the solutions of both problems, Operandum and Predation, thus showing a highly developed ability of "integration" of the behavioral program.     

中国安乐死倡议与"道德陷阱"

针对目前我国公众中普遍认同的安乐死倡议,对于信息的误读、狭隘的感性同情或者不适用的理性经济学逻辑、对于现实社会保障有效供给严重不足的忽视,构成了现阶段安乐死倡议背后的"道德陷阱".     

Free Will and Moral Responsibility: The Trap, the Appreciation of Agency, and the Bubble

In Part I, I reflect in some detail upon the free will problem and about the way its understanding has radically changed. First I outline the four questions that go into making the free will problem. Second, I consider four paradigmatic shifts that have occurred in our understanding of this problem. Then I go on to reflect upon this complex and multi-level situation. In Part II of this essay, I explore the major alternative positions, and defend my views, in new ways. Instead of trying to spread over many issues, I present one new argument against compatibilism, which I call ??The Trap??. This tries to explicate the main problem that I find with this position. Then I present an exposition of what we nevertheless need to follow, which I call ??the Appreciation of Agency??. This supports a measure of compatibilism in a more modest form, and opposes hard determinism. On this basis, we can confront the philosophical and practical questions, as to what we ought to believe and how we ought to live, with respect to free will and moral responsibility. This leads to what I call ??The Bubble,?? which addresses the way in which we deal with the tension between the absence of libertarian free will and The Trap, and the crucial need for the Appreciation of Agency. I conclude by reflecting upon three attributes of the free will problem that I consider central, but that have been neglected in the debate: complexity, risk and tragedy.     

自然语言处理预测抑郁症的技术陷阱与道德风险

抑郁症患者倾向于在网络社交平台上发布带有抑郁信号的推文。基于这些文字信息，借助自然语言处理进行分析，提取归纳用户的语言特征，可以预测潜在用户的抑郁症状况。由于隐私信息的敏感、相关技术的不成熟等原因，出现了诸如信息获取与隐私侵犯、算法偏见与信息误判、信息权利与信息利益、责任界定与权限模糊等现实问题，成为进一步发展的掣肘。进行算法技术升级、完善法律法规、加强行业伦理约束等是避免道德风险的重要措施。