Perhaps the most unsung members of the cephalopods, a group that counts octopuses, squid and nautiluses among their ranks, the squid remains much to prove. Recently, a crew of six common squid (Sepia officinalis) did just that, directing their sinusoidal pupils and collective arms and 12 tentacles to the task of delayed gratification before eating, for the sake of a more delicious meal.
The Squid Test was the project of an international team of researchers who wanted to investigate the intelligence of cephalopods, a field less explored than similar lines of research for mammal and bird species. The team’s investigation was published on Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Animal cognition has been a subject of human intrigue, at least since Darwin created shock waves by making an evolutionary connection between humanity and primates. Since then, scientists have sought to better understand the limits and range of animal cognition, best known in the work of Ivan Pavlov and his dogs or BF Skinner and his rats. But recent researchers have gone beyond questions about classical conditioning and focused on canine ability retain entire word banks for their toys or pigs’ fondness for playing video games
“Our understanding of why self-control has evolved has always been based on evolutionary pressures relevant to long-lived social species,” Alexandra Schnell, a Cambridge University comparative psychologist and lead author of the recent paper, said in an email. . “Squids have not experienced the same pressure.”
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In the case of the last six adolescent squid enrolled in the study (Mica, Pinto, Demi, Franklin, Jebidiah, and Rogelio, while two other squid dropped out), the task to be performed was between an immediately available piece of raw king shrimp. or waiting for the opportunity to eat a live grass shrimp, the latter being the most coveted meal. The team that studied them found that after training, some squids were able to wait up to two minutes for the better reward, showing that they both understood the implications of waiting a while before taking action. Those squids that were particularly patient were also quite reflexive when the conditions of the exercise changed. When the food reward cue changed, those patient cephalopods were the quickest to adjust.
Cuttlefish are not very social in the way humans or chimpanzees are, as the latter species tend to live in groups that help understand certain principles of self-control for the benefit of the whole group. As a result, it was not certain whether the animals would be so reluctant to receive free food.
“This finding is an extreme example of convergent evolution,” said Schnell. “Cuttlefish have significantly different evolutionary histories from the more commonly studied monkeys, corvids and parrots, and yet share the same cognitive trait.”
Schnell said the squid’s self-control can be attributed to its need to stay still in the wild in order to stay camouflaged, as opposed to the self-control abilities typically associated with group activity for more social creatures. The animal only breaks out of its seated shelter to forage for food, which it does in moderation.
“This doesn’t give us the whole picture and each study only provides one piece to the puzzle,” said Schnell. “We need many more studies before we can make meaningful comparisons between the general intelligence of squid and large-brain vertebrates.”