In a 2021 experiment, six young common cuttlefish waited as long as 50–130 seconds for preferred prey rather than eat a less-preferred food available immediately. The animals that waited longer also performed better on a later learning task. The result links delay tolerance with learning performance in this small group; it does not show that cuttlefish took the same test as children or that their intelligence is equivalent to a child’s.
What the cuttlefish had to do
Alexandra Schnell and colleagues tested six nine-month-old sub-adult common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) in an adapted delay-maintenance task. The researchers first established which prey each animal preferred, then trained the cuttlefish to interpret visual symbols indicating whether food was immediately available, delayed but obtainable, or delayed and unobtainable.
In the test, a piece of raw king prawn—the less-preferred option—was available right away. Live grass shrimp, the preferred prey, would become available after a delay. The prawn remained visible and accessible while the cuttlefish waited, so an animal could stop waiting and eat it at any point. Researchers increased the delay in ten-second increments to measure how long each animal continued to hold out.
That design tested more than an initial choice between two rewards: the animal had to keep waiting while the immediate alternative remained available. The authors note that some delay-choice tasks make the first choice irrevocable, so they do not test sustained inhibition in the same way.
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What the study found—and what it means
Schnell and colleagues reported that the cuttlefish “maintained delay durations for up to 50–130 s.” That range describes the durations maintained in this experiment, not a typical waiting time for the species or a population-wide estimate.
After the delay task, the cuttlefish completed a brightness-discrimination and reversal-learning task. Individuals that had waited longer tended to perform better on this learning task. This is an association between two measured abilities, not evidence that waiting caused better learning or that one ability is a complete measure of intelligence.
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How it compares with the children’s marshmallow test
The researchers adapted the broad idea associated with the Stanford marshmallow test: choosing between a lower-value reward now and a better reward later. But children and cuttlefish were not given the same test. The cuttlefish task used prey, required training with visual symbols, and left the immediate food accessible during the wait.
| Feature | Cuttlefish experiment | Children’s marshmallow-test comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Reward | Raw king prawn immediately, or preferred live grass shrimp after a delay. | Nature’s 3 March 2021 highlight describes the human-test analogy; the specific human-test setup is not stated in the sources cited here. |
| What happened during the wait | The less-preferred prawn stayed visible and accessible; the cuttlefish could eat it before the delay ended. | Not stated in the cited coverage. |
| How the delay was set | Researchers increased delays in ten-second increments after training the animals to interpret symbols. | Not stated in the cited coverage. |
| Outcome discussed | How long each cuttlefish sustained the delay, and its performance on a later learning task. | The analogy concerns delaying gratification; a directly comparable learning outcome is not stated in the cited coverage. |
Nature’s coverage framed the result as cuttlefish passing the “marshmallow test,” while the original paper specifies the animal task. The headline analogy is useful for conveying the basic choice, but it should not obscure the differences in rewards, training, timing, and what was measured.
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Why the result needs a careful reading
- Only six cuttlefish were tested. The findings show what happened in this experiment, not how all cuttlefish—or cephalopods generally—would perform.
- Both tasks involved associative learning. The authors say this overlap complicates interpretation of the link between waiting and learning performance.
- The learning task was specific. Better brightness discrimination and reversal learning do not amount to a general intelligence score.
- An evolutionary explanation remains a hypothesis. The authors suggest that self-control could help with foraging, but this experiment does not establish that as the cause of the ability.
The authors call for work on other cognitive processes and other cephalopods to clarify how broad the relationship may be. Their 2021 paper, “Cuttlefish exert self-control in a delay of gratification task,” appeared in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, volume 288, issue 1946, article 20203161. Nature, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the University of Cambridge also covered the experiment in 2021.
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