Man Not Alone In Capacity Of Learning

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28182, 22 January 1957, Page 11

Man Not Alone In Capacity Of Learning

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, January 21. The capacity to learn by experience was possessed to some extent by any animal with a specialised nervous system, Professor A. K. Mclntyre, head of the physiology department at the Otago University Medical School, told those present to hear the David Memorial Lecture at the Science Congress. Learning capacity was often regarded as a peculiarity of the highest and most complex nervous levels, he said. “Consequently, the faculty of memory is commonly conceived as being largely restricted to animals with a welldeveloped cerebral cortex, and though I am not prepared to give an opinion as to whether there is any substance in the popular notion assigning elephants a special place in this group, there is no doubt that man is far in the lead,” he said. “However, I want to submit that from the psychological viewpoint, learning and memory are properties of nervous tissues which have a much wider significance than their conscious manifestations of which we are directly aware.”

An earthworm could, for example, be trained to turn in a particular direction when it reached a T-junction in a tube, he said. More dramatic and with greater possibility of anthropomorphic interpretation, were the fascinating experiments of J. Z. Young with another ivertebrate, the octopus.

“These animals can be trained to distinguish between two diffferent visual signals, one of which accompanies the presentation of food, the other food plus an electric shock,” Professor Mclntyre said.

“After a certain number of repetitions the octopus learns to seize without hesitation a crab accompanied by the first visual symbol, but refuses to approach a similar crab with the shocking signal displayed. In fact, the creature is apt to become sulky and neurotic if the danger signal is about too often.

“These examples are quoted rather than the classical ‘conditioning’ experiments of Pavlov with dogs, because in domestic animals it is difficult to avoid the conviction that there is at least an element of consciousness akin to our own, as anyone on familiar terms with a dog, cat or horse will readily agree. “However, the existence of conscious awareness of this kind in worms and octopuses is much more questionable. Nevertheless, learning capacity in these invertebrates is a proven fact,” said Professor Mclntyre.