{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The savvy cephalopod","description":"Today we\u2019ve got another \u201cbehind the paper\u201d episode for you. In it, we\u2019re talking about some of the most alien-seeming yet charismatic creatures around. I chatted with Dr. Alex Schnell, a Comparative Psychologist and Research Fellow at Cambridge University. We discuss a paper she recently published with a few colleagues titled, \u2018How intelligent is a cephalopod?\u2019 I\u2019ve been charmed by cephalopods for awhile now\u2014octopuses specifically. Maybe you have too. You\u2019ve probably seen those videos of octopuses carrying coconut shells for protection, or pretending to be a hermit grab or a flounder. Maybe you saw the recent documentary My Octopus Teacher where the main octopus character gathers a bunch of shells into a kind of makeshift armor to protect herself against an imminent shark attack. This is all jaw-droppingly, head-scratchingly cool stuff. But you may have also wondered, as I have, what\u2019s really going on\u2014cognitively\u2014 behind these behaviors. What\u2019s happening in the minds of these creatures when they pull off these fancy feats? Could the mechanisms involved actually be simpler than you might at first guess? This really is the core issue in Alex\u2019s paper and we circle around it for much of the conversation. But, in circling, we touch on a lot. We cover some Cephalopod 101 type stuff\u2014when cephalopods split from vertebrates, what cephalopods brains are like, why octopuses tends to hog the limelight when squid and cuttlefish are pretty impressive, too. We talk about Alex\u2019s studies of self-control in cuttlefish, styled on the classic marshmallow experiments. We talk about the cephalopod gift for disguise and whether this gift might suggest a form of bodily awareness or maybe even theory of mind. And we zoom out to talk about the evolution of cognitive sophistication generally and how cephalopods can help us understand the kinds of forces that drive it. I\u2019ve been excited about cephalopods for awhile now, but having this conversation made me that much more so. It\u2019s convinced me that we still have a ton to learn about\u2014and probably from\u2014these brainy, shape-shifting creatures. So let\u2019s get to it. Here\u2019s my conversation with Dr. Alex Schnell. Enjoy!   The paper we discuss is here. A transcript of this episode is available here.   Notes and links 14:35 \u2013 Watch a video of octopuses carrying coconuts here. See the original research study on this behavior here. 16:45 \u2013 A paper showing that Eurasian jays can think beyond their current state to consider future needs. 17:40 \u2013 The paper reporting the original pretzel experiments in human children. 29:10 \u2013 A video of an octopus purportedly changing colors while dreaming. 32:10 \u2013 Another recent paper published by Dr. Schnell, led by her colleague Piero Amodio, about the evolutionary drivers of cephalopod intelligence and animal intelligence generally. 38:20 \u2013 A recent discussion of animal sentience and the \u201cprecautionary principle.\u201d   Dr. Schnell\u2019s end-of-show reading recommendations: A recent paper by P. Billard and colleagues Recent work by Piero Amodio Research at the Cognitive Neuroethology of Cephalopods (NECC) lab You can follow Dr. Schnell at her website or on Twitter.   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) (https:\/\/www.diverseintelligencessummer.com\/), which is made possible by a generous grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation to UCLA. It is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster, and Associate Director Hilda Loury. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd (https:\/\/www.mayhilldesigns.co.uk\/). Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala (https:\/\/sarahdopierala.wordpress.com\/). You can subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, follow us on Twitter: @ManyMindsPod. ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"