Self-Recognition as an Aspect of Consciousness in Pacific Red Octopuses, Octopus Rubescens

Over the summer of 2022, with the funding provided by the Alaska Space Grant Program
Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship award, I made progress on the ongoing mirror trial
investigation project I began during the 2021-2022 academic year. I conducted a series of 40 two-hour control and mirror exposure trials on each of two female
O. rubescens (an octopus found in the temperate waters of southeast Alaska) and 10 two-hour
conspecific exposure control trials with two male specimens. After exposure to both flat mirror
and distorted mirror reflections, I hypothesized that O. rubescens would spike in behavioral
interest in relation to a mirror reflection but decrease over time to a baseline level of activity,
indicating a recognition of the contingency between itself and the image. Similarly, true self
recognition would be distinguished by another spike in interaction with a distorted image yet
acclimate quickly back to the standard level of activity that is suggestive of an octopus that is not
threatened by the presence of another.
 

Link to Final Poster