Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Review highlights cognitive accomplishments and sensory attributes of cephalopods, indicating consciousness complexities.
Jennifer Mather has provided a comprehensive and fascinating overview of the various cognitive accomplishments of cephalopods and their sensory, behavioral, and neurophysiological attributes. The advances in our understanding of a clade that has been separated from vertebrate evolution by well over half a billion years is a testament to advances in both methodology and the questions we now feel free to address. Mather embeds her review in the issue of consciousness, which is certainly a perennial issue in mental evolution, going back to Romanes and earlier. I argue that the term "consciousness" has such a checkered history and is used in such diverse ways even today that, despite current popular enthusiasm, it is scientifically misleading.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Gordon M. Burghardt (2025) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: