You want to know if an octopus (octopi are very intelligent!) can tell the difference between circles and rectangles. You provid
e each octopus with one circular disk and one flattened rectangle. You hide food under the rectangle. After several trials, you then count how many times the octopus picks up the circle and how many times it picks up the rectangle. You get the following results:
Circles: 6
Rectangles: 19
Can the octopus tell the difference between circles and rectangles?
The octopus chose the rectangles 68% of the time. From this observation you can tell that the octopus has learned there is food under the rectangular shape. Its cognitive abilities are less than a human's, but they are able to discern a rectangle from a circle with success.
