Introduction

Thus wrote physiologist J. Z. Young in a script solicited by the Committee for Science and Technology for the 1951 Festival of Britain and for which Young proposed a novel exhibit focused on memory in the octopus. Describing the natural history and behavior of this marine animal, Young explained to his readers those reasons that rendered the invertebrate a model organism for the science of physiology. Noting that octopuses proved to be particularly clever creatures, Young claimed they were highly amenable to training. “The experiment consisted,” he wrote, “in training the Octopus not to attack a crab if a white square was also present” in their aquarium. When the square was not present the octopus could feed on the crab. By presenting the crab and the white square together to the octopus, the animal could be trained to associate the white square and the crab with painful experiences. “This was done by dangling the crab on a thread in front of the square to which a pair of electric wires were attached. When the Octopus came out and attacked the crab, it received an electric shock, dropped the crab and retreated home.”