QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by A. MUNTZ, W. R. Articles by GWYTHER, J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by A. MUNTZ, W. R. Articles by GWYTHER, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Journal of Experimental Biology 134,119-129 (1988)
Published by Company of Biologists 1988

Visual Acuity in Octopus Pallidus and Octopus Australis

W. R. A. MUNTZ ¹ and J. GWYTHER ¹

¹ Faculty of Science, Monash University, Clavton, Victoria, Australia 3168

Specimens of Octopus pallidus and O. australis were trained to discriminate vertical from horizontal rectangles, vertical from horizontal gratings, and vertical and horizontal gratings from uniform grey. In the discriminations that involved gratings a conditional simultaneous discrimination procedure was used, in which the two stimuli to be discriminated were presented stationary at the two ends of the tank, and a moving white disc was shown in front of each of them. Attacks on a disc were then rewarded or punished depending on the background against which it was shown. Animals rapidly reached performance levels of better than 80% correct responses on all discriminations.

With one specimen of O. pallidus and three of O. australis when progressively finer gratings were used the discrimination broke down with stripe widths between 4.4' and 9.7', showing that for both species the minimum separable visual acuity is less than 9.7'.

The behaviour of the two species is very similar to that of O. vulgaris, except that they accept less food per day, so fewer trials could be given.

Key words: octopus, vision, acuity

Accepted on July 27, 1987

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F Schaeffel, C. Murphy, and H. Howland Accommodation in the cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) J. Exp. Biol., January 11, 1999; 202(22): 3127 - 3134. [Abstract] [PDF]