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A memorable encounter with a cuttlefish.
Researchers have been doing what they do best…research. This time, their experiments with marine life caught our attention. We think. It’s kind of hard to remember. (Run time: 5 minutes)
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Transcript:
CLINTON:
As people get older, they tend to forget things.
(PAUSE.)
Oh, hi there. Clinton here. And here is today’s Odd News story.
New research indicates cuttlefish – that’s C-U-T-T-L-E, not cuddly at all — that cuttlefish can remember events and call up past experiences right up to their last few days of life.
(PAUSE.)
And here is today’s Odd News story.
Memory tests were conduced on 24 cuttlefish. Half were the equivalent of very young teenager, and the other half were the equivalent of a human in their 90’s.
I loved the 90’s. Have I mentioned how many pogs I have in my collection?
Oh, hi there, Clinton here. And here is…
The cuttlefish were trained to identify two different flags dropped into their tank, one showed where they could go to be fed yummy grass shimp, mmmmmm. The other one told them where not-so-yummy king prawn would be served. Feh. And researchers kept randomizing the flag locations.
Okay. Now here’s where things get complicated. Uh. More complicated.
For the first meal of the day the cuttlefish had to find and wait by the shrimp flag. It was the only place where food would be delivered.
An hour later, the flags were back. Now the cuttlefish had to remember it already had its first meal, and this time it had to find and wait by the flag for the not so yummy prawns.
Finally, three hours after that, the cuttlefish could zip to either flag and wait to get fed. And the cuttlefish had to remember that way back three hours ago they had to choose the meh food and now they could go wait the shrimp flag again.
It turns out that all the cuttlefish could remember all the things they had to do. Even the really old ones remembered all the elements of the test. What? what test?
But us humans? As time goes by it gets harder and harder for us to remember info like times and places and things we’ve already done.
Oh, hi there, Clinton here. And here is today’s odd news story.
The cuttlefish — aww, cuddlefish — isn’t that cute. Cute cuddly fish don’t have a hippocampus. The hippocampus is how humans remember…what hippos they met it..”college?”
“What’s surprising,” said Dr. Schnell, is that even though the old cuttlefish showed “other signs of ageing like loss of muscle function and appetite and turning up the TV too loud, they were just as good as the younger ones in the memory task – in fact, many of the older ones did better in the test phase. See? Still relevant!
Personally, I think this memory difference is because what a human is thinking as they get older is different from what an old cuttlefish is thinking. The cuttlefish is thinking “Don’t get eaten by a shark. When are they putting those flags back in the water? Don’t get eaten by a shark. When are they putting those flags back in the water?” and old human people are thinking “Where did I put my keys? Did I leave the oven on? Why does everyone groan when I write a check at the grocery store? What day of the week is it this year? Did I leave the oven on? Do I like asparagus? What is asparagus?” There’s no room left to remember other stuff.
Oh, hi there. Clinton here. That’s it, we’re done, done, done,