CEPHALOPOD COGNITION

This seminar is designed to introduce you to the methods used to discern and describe the cognitive repertoire of novel, understudied, animals.  The animals which we will specifically examine in the class are octopuses and cuttlefish.  Over the course of the semester you will learn how we define cognitive abilities in humans and examine them in various animal species for modeling and comparison purposes.  Each week you will examine one specific ability in humans, a traditional animal model, and a cephalopod.  In this manner you will come to understand the historical process of understanding animal cognition, the current state of the literature in at least one area of cephalopod cognition and be capable of proposing a novel experiment as a way to extend our knowledge of that area of cephalopod cognition.